Vulnerability
by simplexdreams
Summary: Phoenix Lancaster is just as extraordinary as she appears, she is a muggle-born metamorphmagus, and she has never had a quiet life. Thanks to her courageous and troublesome best friends, Fred and George Weasley - GW/OC.
1. Up and Down

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: ****I have made a few minor changes to the story so far, mostly spelling and grammar mistakes and added some more information and changed the name of Phoenix's owl to Silvano. I have also been granted study leave by my school and I officially finish all my exams next Thursday (19th June) so I will be updating and this story more frequently, I have already written the first ten chapters. Enjoy this chapter, review and tell me what you think!**

* * *

"_You might know how it begins  
But you'll never guess just how this one ends."_

* * *

A million stars scattered across a dark blanket of sky as night-time crept across the small town of Little Hartburgh. The summer air was colder than usual, the wind blowing several trees that stood beside a large lake that reflected the night sky, making the stars look as though they were alive, dancing in the ripples of water.

The calmness of the water was suddenly disturbed by a small rock skimming across the water, jumping three times before sinking down to the bottom of the lake.

"Oh come on!" A small cry broke the silent night.

The cry came from a girl that stood beside the lake, she had eyes that were a bright blue, and seemed to sparkle in the reflection of the lake. Her hair was a bright lilac hair that seemed to flow down to mid-back, her pale heart-shaped face making the colour of her hair stand out magnificently.

This girl's name was Phoenix Augusta Lancaster. Just like her name, she was quite extraordinary and not because of her hair, but because she was in fact a witch. She was an extremely gifted witch at that. She was a Metamorphmagus, meaning that she had the ability to change her appearance, hence her eccentric choice of hair.

Phoenix bent over, her eyes squinting as she concentrated on the small stone that she held in her hand. She then threw the stone away from her, across the lake and Phoenix watched as it jumped, one, two, three and finally four times. A triumphant smile spread across her face and suddenly her hair changed to her natural colour of mousy brown. "Finally", she whispered, standing up straight and smiling widely, leaning her head back and letting the cold air hit her face, the wind making her hair dance about.

It was so peaceful, Phoenix thought as she walked across the path that ran around the lake. She quickly found the place she was looking for and lay her back down on the grass, her hands resting under her head as she stared up at the sky, a feeling of content filling her stomach.

Phoenix was enjoying her summer so far, her elder step-brother, William, had been teaching her how to skateboard and taking her to concerts, and she and her step-cousin Nymphadora, who was also a Metamorphmagus, had been having a lot of fun with one another, changing their appearances at least five times an hour. But now she was looking forward to returning to her favourite place in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Phoenix was about to embark on her sixth and second to last year of school and she could not wait to return. She had so far been spending her summer with her parents, her father Andrei Lancaster and her step-mother, Cecilia Black-Lancaster. Her biological mother, Jane Lancaster, had died suddenly when Phoenix was only three years old, for reasons that her father and step-mother felt it was unwise to tell her.

Her step-mother and father had married nine years after her mother's death. Phoenix's step-mother was a pure-blood witch, whereas her mother had been a muggle, along with her father. This meant that they did not possess magic ability like Phoenix and her step-mother did and this made Phoenix a muggle born, a muggle born Metamorphmagus. Her father always told her that when she was born, her hair colour had changed so frequently in the hours after her birth that he and her mother had simply thought she was going mad. So on that fateful day when a fully grown witch, who was Phoenix's transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, had turned up on their doorstep and informed Phoenix and her parents that she would be attending Hogwarts School; it had no less surprised her father, who had already been putting Phoenix into contact with the best secondary schools in the area, and delighted her step-mother to the point of tears.

Phoenix loved being a witch, in fact at school she always received top marks in every single one of her lessons and never failed to receive praise from the teachers about how she was one of the brightest students they had the pleasure to teach. This usually caused Phoenix's cheeks to burn a bright red and her two best friends, Fred and George Weasley, to snigger beside her and imitate Phoenix fighting somebody to the death and her winning triumphantly.

Fred and George were just one of the reasons why she loved being a witch so much. They were twins; both had flaming red hair, brown eyes and freckles. They are were pair of notorious troublemakers and pranksters, their frequent escapades and shenanigans got them into plenty of trouble and kept Phoenix's life on a constant move. Fred and George openly gloated about Argus Filch, the school's caretaker, having an entire file drawer devoted to their rule-breaking. They thought of it as a kind of shrine to their wrong-doings. Phoenix and the twins had been best friends since their first journey on the Hogwarts Express. Phoenix had been sitting all by herself in a compartment when the two boys came in; giggling madly about setting dungbombs in their older brother, Percy's compartment and Phoenix had scolded them for being irresponsible before school had even started, but then subsided into fits of laughter when Percy had come storming into the compartment that she and the twins were in, shrieking as loud as a Banshee.

Ever since that day she had been on a constant rollercoaster with the Weasley twins and their shenanigans, trying desperately to make sure they kept in line while trying also to not egg them on to do things like hex any Slytherins who gave them trouble and make Percy run circles around them. She even sometimes went along with some of their rule breaking, including sneaking into the school's kitchens in the dead of night and getting the house elves to make them hot chocolate.

She smiled up at the stars as she thought about the twins; they had invited to come along to the Quidditch World Cup along with the rest of the Weasley family and the twins brother, Ron, friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. Quidditch was, in Phoenix's opinion, the best sport in the world. She was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, along with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet. Fred and George were also on the team and were beaters, their seeker was Harry and their keeper had been Oliver Wood, until he had left at the end of last year. Phoenix could not wait for the World Cup and she could not wait to spend the remainder of her summer at the Weasley's home, the Burrow.

She loved spending her summers at the Burrow. She had spent at least four weeks of her summer at the Weasley's family home since she had been twelve years old. Cecilia had too always been good friends with the Weasley's since she and Arthur worked in close proximity. Phoenix spent her time at Weasley house helping to de-gnome the garden or playing Quidditch in the small field by the house and having magnificent food cooked by Mrs. Weasley.

Feeling that her arm was about to go dead, Phoenix got to her feet, her hair changing to an aqua colour blue now, and once again, she looked up to the sky to the stars winking down at her.

* * *

Sunlight flooded in through the large open window, the cream coloured lace curtains billowed softly in the wind and Phoenix shivered, she was sleeping soundlessly on the king sized bed in the middle of the room, her body half covered in a bright blue blanket, her arms were dangling over the edge of her bed, her mouth lolling open as she mumbled incoherent words.

On top of the bed was a large pile of crumpled up pieces of parchment and newspapers. On one of the newspapers, in large bold letters the worlds, **BERTHA JORKINS: MISSING**, but the article was obscured by a piece of yellowish parchment, the letter was written in emerald-green ink. A seal was at the top of the letter, bearing the Hogwarts coat of arms, a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake, all of the surrounding a large letter 'H'.

**ORDINIARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS**

Pass grades:  
Outstanding (O)  
Exceeds Expectation (E)  
Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades:  
Poor (P)  
Dreadful (D)  
Troll (T)

**PHOENIX AUGUSTA LANCASTER HAS ACHIEVED:**

ANCIENT RUNES: O  
ASTRONOMY: O  
CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES: O  
CHARMS: O  
DEFENCE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS: O  
DIVINATION: E  
HERBOLOGY: O  
HISTORY OF MAGIC: O  
MUGGLE STUDIES: O  
POTIONS: O  
TRANSFIGURATION: O

Phoenix shuddered as a rather cold and strong gust of wind awoke her. But she didn't want to open her eyes and begin her morning routine. She was anything but a morning person. Even with the burning feeling of excitement in the pit of her stomach at the fact that in less than five hours she would be at the Burrow, she could still not bring herself to clamber out of bed and begin packing.

"NIX!" Phoenix's elder step-brother Will yelled from outside her bedroom door, causing her to groan and pull her blanket closer around her. "YOU NEED TO PACK OR ANASTASIA WILL GO TO THE CUP INSTEAD OF YOU!" This certainly woke Phoenix up.

"SHE WILL DO NO SUCH THING" Phoenix bellowed back, jumping from her bed and yanking her bedroom door open to see her oldest brother, smiling widely down at her.

Phoenix had two step-brothers, who had already left Hogwarts, they both worked for the Ministry of Magic along with her mother. Edmund, who was the oldest and six years older than Phoenix, was an 'Unspeakable' and worked in the Magic's Department of Mysteries, he never mentioned what he did but Phoenix knew that he studied in the Death Chamber. Phoenix's step-mother was a member of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, along with Mr Weasley and his assistant, Perkins, which is how she and Mr. Weasley had met and become good friends. Phoenix's other step-brother William, he was five years older than Phoenix, was an Auror, a dark wizard catcher. Her father was a muggle author, he wrote fantasy and crime novels, which were all pretty interesting, Phoenix had to admit. She also had a step-sister, Anastasia who was who two years older than Phoenix and who had just left Hogwarts and was currently in training to be a Healer. Anastasia spent most of her evenings drowning on about the work load was simply boring.

"Well at least you're up Nix," said Will as he smiled broadly down at her, "I seemed to notice that you weren't in your room when I came to check if you were asleep and the window was also open." This made Phoenix curse herself for not being cleverer about sneaking out to take a walk around the lake that was metres away from their tiny family cottage, which was known as Lavender Cottage.

"I was just taking a walk." Phoenix said simply, crossing her arms across her chest and leaning against the door frame.

"You are lucky I wasn't Ed because he would have called a search party out by the Ministry for you," Will grimaced at his youngest sister, before saying darkly, "That would be far more that the Ministry are doing for Bertha Jorkins."

"Still no clue where she is?" Phoenix asked glumly.

"Not the slightest." Will shook his head as he watched his step-sister's hair turn from aqua to her usual mousy brown "Anyway, Mum says that breakfast is ready, so come down stairs."

Instead of venturing downstairs for breakfast, Phoenix began to pack all of her clothes and school things in her large trunk and her most prized possessions. Her broomstick which was a Comet 260, her skateboard that Will had brought her, her many old school spellbooks, her old school robes that still fit her and all of her quills and ink bottles were all squashed into the bottom of her trunk and on top of her school things, she crammed the entire contents of her wardrobe and some muggle books she had been reading over the summer into her trunk before she slammed it shut, a triumphant smile on her face. Just as Phoenix, sat herself down on the trunk, an owl shot in through her open bedroom window and landed on her bed, then keeled over and then lay motionless on her bed.

"Errol," Phoenix sighed, instantly recognising the unconscious owl that belonged to the Weasley family. She immediately stood up and began untying the cords around Errol's leg, took off the piece of parchment and then carried Errol over to Silvano's cage. Silvano was Phoenix's owl, a beautiful and energetic Tawny Owl, who was still currently out hunting. Errol opened his eyes blearily, gave a small hoot of thanks and began to gulp down some water.

Phoenix sat back down on her back and unfolded the piece of parchment in her hands and smoothed it out, smiling when she recognised the familiar handwriting that belonged to George Weasley.

_Dear Pixy,_

_The Quidditch World Cup is almost upon us! I'm beyond excited, Hermione has just arrived and is already boring me and Fred with her summer school work and we really need our best friend to help us! Fred admitted he missed you telling us off when you're studying and we are busying causing chaos. Don't tell him I told you that though, he'd curse me._

_Remember to be ready for four o'clock on Saturday (who am I kidding, you're going to still be in bed, you lazy git!). I doubt you will even still be at your house by the time that Errol gets there; he's becoming slower by the minute. We're picking Harry up on Sunday and we have devised a plan that may or may not include his idiot cousin, but I won't give away too much information as you may explode when you hear it._

_Fred says hi and we'll see you Saturday – George._

Phoenix smiled at the letter in her hands, before frowning at George's mention of the plan involving Harry's muggle cousin Dudley, but she knew there was no way convincing the twins to not go through with a plan once it was implanted in their heads. She crossed her room and sat down by her desk, putting the letter from George in a pile that was full of letters from the twins and all of her other friends from Hogwarts. She picked up a piece of parchment that lay on her desk, which she always had ready for writing letters, picked up her quill and dipped it her bottle of ink began writing a reply.

_Dear George,_

_I am too very excited for the match and I am of course never going to let Fred live down what he had said, you clearly do not know me at all my freakishly tall friend. But I must admit I do miss you guys and your antics too. I've had to listen to Anastasia's story about being projectile vomited on by a muggle for half an hour about 60 times this summer and I am looking forward to hearing your shenanigans for once in my life. Errol is currently in Silvano's cage having a rest so I suppose by the time you get this letter, we'll have left Hogwarts! I'll wait for Popcorn to come back from hunting so he can give you this letter and I hope your plan isn't too adventurous, I don't want to be in the house if Molly is screaming at the pair of you. (Who am I kidding she always is!)_

_See you guys tonight – Phoenix. _

_P.S – Hello Fred and I am not a lazy git._

Phoenix folded up her letter, smiling to herself as she maneuvered her way over to her window seat and sat down, looking out through the open window at the vast countryside that surrounded the Lavender Cottage. The branches of trees danced as the wind blew, the summer air wafting in through Phoenix's window and the blazing summer sun felt warm on her face, she closed her eyes and her hair turned suddenly into a vibrant pink. Phoenix opened her eyes and placed two fingers in her mouth and blew, a shrill whistle came from her lips and she waited patiently before whistling again.

Then she saw him, rising from the trees and soring towards the window, Phoenix jumped aside as her large and loyal companion Silvano came shooting through the window, landing very elegantly on her bedside table. Phoenix smiled at the owl whose great emerald green eyes looked inquisitively back at her.

"I need you to take this to Fred and George," She told him and Silvano hooted back, his eyes a blaze with the familiar excitement of going to the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley always gave him treats. Phoenix began to tie a cord around Silvano's leg, attached was the letter for Fred and George. "Take Errol with you as well if you can" Phoenix inclined her head at Errol who was perched in Silvano's cage. Silvano hooted and flew over to Errol to help him.

* * *

Four o'clock came quickly and Phoenix and her parents and elder step-brothers found them all seated in their cosy living room, with Phoenix's trunk and Silvano's cage set down beside one of the sofas, all waiting eagerly for the Weasley party to arrive while a movie played on television screen. Since her father was a muggle and her step-mother was a witch, her house was an odd assortment of wizard items and muggle items, the television was just one of the muggle items in their house. Phoenix smiled as she thought about how excited Mr. Weasley would be when he saw all of the muggle things in the house.

"H-how are the Weasley's getting here?" Asked Phoenix's father, shuffling the newspaper in his hands nervously before adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose, Phoenix's father was a very anxious man, very nervous when it came to things to do with the wizarding world, even though his wife assured him that it was all fine and he had met the Weasley's countless times.

"Oh Andrei," Cecilia laughed at her husband, twirling her shoulder length blonde hair with her wand, her dark brown eyes looking from the fireplace to the window. "They could arrive by Floo Powder, Broomsticks, Portkey they could even apparate, endless possibilities really darling."

"If I know Arthur Weasley, he would arrive by some form of muggle transport." Chuckled Will, causing Phoenix to roll her eyes, Will was very true. In her fourth year, Arthur Weasley had bewitched a muggle car and his son Ron and Harry had crashed it into the Whomping Willow and almost cost Arthur his job at the Ministry. He was fascinated by all things Muggle. He collected plugs and all sorts of Muggle objects.

Phoenix began to grow agitated, playing with her pink candyfloss coloured hair, she wished that the Weasley's would hurry up so that she could get away from her house. She loved being home but she was itching for a change in scenery, to be at the Burrow, where everyone was constantly on the move and there was always something to do, from de-gnoming to hearing explosions from Fred and George's room, the house was bursting with the unexpected. Whereas at her house, it was usually very quiet and everybody was secretive. Phoenix never knew how her mother had died, but the rest of her family, even the ones who were not blood related, knew the exact circumstances in which she had died. They all thought that she was 'too young to understand'. She hated it and often had to escape from the house, climbing down from her bedroom window with the help of the large apple tree that stood beside it because she needed to have time to think.

"Are you excited for the match then Nix?" Edmund asked Phoenix, flicking his wand through the air lazily and levitating the television remote towards him.

"Ed, don't you dare change the channel, I want to see what the weather will be like tomorrow." Snapped Cecilia, shooting her son a withering look, causing Edmund to groan and drop the remote in mid-air, making it smash on the stone floor, the back of the remote burst and two batteries rolled out of it.

"Well done Ed," Grimaced Phoenix as she watched Cecilia flick her wand with ease and two batteries came soring out of a drawer beside their father. "I'm looking very forward to it; I've never been to a real Quidditch match before. I've been to a football match, but that was just Will's under 15s charity match." Edmund chuckled along with Phoenix and their father.

"Well I suppose we will see you there, me and Will managed to get tickets, not as good as your tickets though, Arthur told us. You're in for a treat Nix." Edmund smiled at her and she smiled back and returned to playing with her hair.

"Quidditch sounds positively dangerous." Phoenix's father began and she rolled her eyes, "make sure that you take care of yourself and be sure to- ARRRRRRGH!"

The fireplace suddenly came alive, green fire began to rise in the air and Andrei jumped about ten feet into the air and swore loudly, and Cecilia yelled at her husband 'ANDREI'.

The reason that Andrei had screamed was standing in front of the fireplace, looking around as though Christmas had come early, Mr. Weasley. He was tall, thin and balding but the hair the little hair that remained was a flaming red, he straightened his glasses and brushed his long green robes before approaching the family.

"Hello," Arthur said brightly, smiling around at everyone "arrived just on time, I see. Fred should be arriving just about now." The fire once again burned a bright green and a grinning Fred Weasley came into view, waving around at everyone.

"Good afternoon," Fred said, smiling lopsidedly at Phoenix and plonked himself down in the seat beside her. He gave her a one armed hug, waved around at her elder step-brothers and focused his attention on the movie that was playing on the television, making Phoenix roll her eyes.

The fire glowed once again and Fred's twin, George appeared, identical to his twin down to the last freckle.

"Sorry to scare you Andrei," Arthur apologised quickly "I wanted to take a Muggle car here but Cecilia informed me that traffic is horrendous."

"Hi Pixy," George smiled down at Phoenix as he sat on the other side of Phoenix. His smile was just as lopsided as his twin. Phoenix scrunched her nose at George's nickname for her, Pixy. He had given it to her because for the fact she was tiny compared to him and Fred, she barely reached their shoulders. "How's your summer been so far?"

"I bet it's been miserable without us," Grimaced Fred, smiling at his twin before looking down at Phoenix.

She did not want to admit that her summer had indeed been miserable without them. She merely didn't want to give them such satisfaction, "It's been alright I suppose," She lied.

Overall, it had been her worst summer yet; she spent most of her nights walking around the lake and most of her days reading muggle novels, unless Will or Ed had a day off work where they could spend the day skateboarding through the small village of Little Hartburgh. Nearly every night, she had desperately been trying to listen into her family's' hushed conversations, but they always immediately ceased when Phoenix came into the room. She hated how secretive everything seemed to be.

George frowned at Phoenix, clearly not believing her and he looked at his twin, who didn't seem to catch on as he was too busy staring at the television screen, "Televisions are weird" Fred said, shaking his head.

"They are ingenious!" Arthur goggled, making the twins roll their eyes and Phoenix laugh, "But we're here to bring Phoenix to the Burrow, not to watch the televivy," Arthur said impatiently and Phoenix couldn't help but grin when Mr. Weasley pronounced television wrong.

The twins and Phoenix got to their feet, as did Phoenix's family so that they could say goodbye to her as Fred grabbed Phoenix's trunk and George took Silvano's cage.

"Well we will see you a Christmas hopefully," Her father beamed down at her, engulfing his daughter into a big hug and planting a kiss on top of her head.

"I doubt she will want to come home for Christmas, what with everything that is going to be happening at Hogwarts." William said, smirking as Phoenix went to hug Cecilia.

"What's happening at Hogwarts?" Phoenix, Fred and George all asked at once. Edmund punched him on the arm and mumbled something about 'top secret information' before he too hugged Phoenix.

"Be careful now Nix," Edmund said as he hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head like her father had, "Make sure you look after her, won't you boys?"

"We always look after her." Fred said, waving his hand through the air with a not so convincing smirk upon his face.

"Right," Mr Weasley said firmly, clapping his hands together, "All set? Let's go- Oh plugs!"


	2. Shenanigans at The Burrow

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: Thank you to all the lovely reviews so far. This story will get more interesting once Phoenix and the twins go back to school (promise me, I've already written the first ten chapters) so these first few chapters and just introducing you to the characters, how they interact with one another and their backgrounds.  
**

* * *

"_I've been a fool and I've been blind,  
I can never leave the past behind."_

* * *

"Phoenix!"

Mrs. Weasley, who was a short, plump woman with a very kind face, beamed at Phoenix as soon as she stepped out of the fire place, just behind the twins. She smiled at Mrs. Weasley before she was pulled into one of her big, warm hugs.

"Hi Mrs. Weasley, thank you for allowing me to stay for the rest of the summer," Phoenix said, smiling as Mrs. Weasley released her from the hug and placed her hands on both of Phoenix's shoulders to get a better look at her.

"For the last time Phoenix, you can call me Molly!" She said, shaking her head before saying, "Where's Arthur? He better not be-"

"Looking at the plugs again," George finished his mother's sentence with a smirk on his face.

"Merlin's beard," Molly sighed as a loud hoot came from behind Phoenix. She turned round to see Silvano shoring gracefully through the open front door and landed in front of her on the arm of the chair. "I given him a few treats if that's alright with you Phoenix. Anyway, boys! Take her things up to Ginny's room while I make you all some sandwiches."

The twins nodded, George picking up Silvano's cage and Fred taking Phoenix's trunk. Phoenix followed the twins as they carried her things up the rickety staircase.

"So, tell us truthfully, how was your summer?" George questioned as he, Fred and Phoenix all slumped down in the twin's room, Phoenix sitting crossed legged on George's bed, George beside her and Fred lying down on his bed. They had a large plate of ham and cheese sandwiches in between them and they were all digging in hungrily.

"What? I told you it's been okay," Phoenix replied, half way through chewing her food. She swallowed and gulped down some pumpkin juice, looking over at George who had a look on his face as if to say _do-you-think-I'm-an-idiot?_ "What? You don't believe me?"

"I know when you're lying Pixy," George said defiantly, looking over at his twin, who nodded at him and looked at Phoenix, with his mouth full of food.

"Wou wook wiserable" Fred said through a mouthful of food, causing Phoenix to look at him with an expression between disgust, amusement and confusion.

"Is it really that obvious?" She asked, moving some of her hair, which was now a bright lilac, out of her face and bit her lip softly. The twins nodded, causing her to sigh and lean her head against George's shoulder, who put his arm around her shoulder before he grabbed two sandwiches for the both of them. "My summer hasn't been terrible," she assured them, "I've had fun but it's just – been really lonely at home. Will has been spending loads of time with me, I just feel," she paused for a moment, "Isolated."

"What do you mean?" inquired Fred.

"Well," began Phoenix, "all of my family seen to be having hushed conversations about something and then I walk in and they just busy themselves and pretend that they weren't talking. I tried to listen to what they were talking about but I think they have been casting Silencing Charms so I can't hear them."

"That is suspicious," said George.

"I know," Phoenix said miserably, "I think it has something to do with my mother."

"Why do you think that?" said Fred.

Phoenix clicked her tongue and pulled the sandwich in her hands apart, "Well, when you put things into perspective and really think about it, why else would my family keep things from me? I mean, I'm the only who doesn't really know how she died," she said, "unless they're planning me a really late surprise birthday party or something, but I highly doubt that."

"Well," said George, "whatever it is – with our help – you will find out eventually."

"Anyway, how did you do in your O.W.L.s?" Fred asked Phoenix, by the look on her face the twins already guessed that she passed her exams with flying colours.

"I got an Outstanding in everything, apart from-"

"Divination" Fred and George both finished for her, causing her to blush and laugh at her best friends.

"How on earth did you know?" She laughed; Divination was by far her least favourite subject. She disliked it even more than Potions with Snape. Their teacher, Professor Trelawney predicted Phoenix's death in much detail every single lesson, varying from her drowning in the lake to falling down the staircase. "How did you two do anyhow?" She noticed Fred and George glance at each other, identical smirks on their faces "Did you do that bad?"

"We got three O.W.L.s each." George said proudly and Phoenix's eyes widened but then she snorted with laughter. "We both passed Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, we passed them with flying colours. Fred got an Outstanding in Transfiguration and I got an Outstanding in Herbology."

"Overall three Outstanding's is pretty damn well good." Fred smiled, his hand placed over his chest in pride "Mum isn't very impressed however" He said glumly.

"I don't see how on earth you only got three O.W.L.s each though. You are both really smart when you concentrate. I mean, I'm surprised you didn't at least pass Potions, I mean with all the experiments you two do."

Fred rolled his eyes, "We didn't pass potions because we didn't want to pass potions, we purposely did so terrible that we had no way of passing and not having any more lessons with Snape" He sniggered.

"I want to become an Auror so I have to do Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology and Charms. _And _I am taking Ancient Runes from my N.E.W.T.s. You two are sorted, you have only two more years to do what you want, I have about five years and that includes Auror training!" Phoenix groaned, making Fred and George roll their eyes as she ranted.

"For a Metamorphmagus you really haven't changed much."

* * *

Phoenix spent the rest of the evening helping Mrs. Weasley preparing dinner with Ginny and Hermione while Ron, Bill, and Charlie were all playing a game of exploding snap on the kitchen table, Fred and George were watching them play, sniggering about something. Mr. Weasley was also sat at the table reading the Daily Prophet. Phoenix and Hermione were cutting up the vegetables when Percy came storming into the kitchen, shrieking and pointing to his hair which had turned in a furious shade of pink. Everyone in the kitchen roared with laughter, excluding Mrs. Weasley who shot a withering look at her husband, who immediately stopped laughing and looked instantly at the twins.

"Don't tell me you are a Metamorphmagus too Perce." George said through fits of laughter.

Percy shot his brothers a murderous stare before he bellowed, "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR TROUBLE MAKING! I AM SUPPOSED TO BE HANDING IN A REPORT ON CAULDRON BOTTOMS ON TUESDAY _AND _ATTENDING THE WORLD CUP WHERE ALL MY BOSSES WILL BE AND DO YOU THINK MR. CROUCH WILL TAKE ME SERIOUSLY WITH HAIR LIKE _THIS_?!"

"Ay, watch it, Nix is perfectly respected and she has different hair every day, take a leaf out of her book." Sniggered George and Phoenix shot him a look that could rival even Mrs. Weasley.

"And anyway Perce, if Mr. Crouch can't take you seriously then certainly you should know that we can't." Fred said, crossing his arms over his chest and trying his very best not to laugh.

"Boys," Mrs. Weasley said sharply and the twins jumped and turned to face their mum, an identical look on their faces that looked like a child who had been caught taking sweets when they weren't supposed to be, "you need to stop pranking your brother. You should be taking a leaf out of _his_ book, in fact, take a few leafs. Take all the leafs you can!"

Phoenix and Hermione looked up at each other, both sensing the impending wrath of Mrs. Weasley, and quickly began chopping the vegetables madly, but Mrs Weasley yells never came. Phoenix let out a yelp of pain before Mrs. Weasley could even get on the topic of their O.W.L.s results. Everyone looked as Phoenix pulled her bloody finger away from the vegetables and the knife, trying to stop the flow of blood from her cut.

"Oh dear!" Molly came bustling over, immediately stopping glaring at the twins to fuss over Phoenix's cut finger. Mrs. Weasley pulled her over to the sink and turned on the cold water, putting Phoenix's finger under it, making her wince slightly. Mrs. Weasley then pulled out her wand, swishing it through the air and Phoenix watched as her cut glowed a pale purple colour and slowly healed itself, leaving a small scar there.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley, I mean, thanks Molly," Phoenix smiled gratefully up at her.

Mrs. Weasley smiled back at her, placing her wand in the waist band on her dress "Next time dear, be careful when cutting vegetables."

The next day at the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley kept both the twins, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Phoenix all busy, making them first de-gnome the garden then feeding the chickens and finally helping Molly prepare lunch for everyone.

When Mrs Weasley was busy cutting some bread, she had told Phoenix that she didn't want her to hurt herself again, and Phoenix was pouring pumpkin juice into some cups, Mr. Weasley bustled into the kitchen, followed closely by Bill, Charlie and the twins, who both had rushed out of the room when Mrs. Weasley asked them to help with lunch.

"Ah, I see that lunch is almost ready." Mr. Weasley said brightly as Hermione set a plate of sandwiches on the table.

Phoenix sat in her usual seat, opposite Mr. Weasley and in between the twins. Mr. Weasley always loved to ask her and Hermione all about muggels whenever they ate lunch, dinner or breakfast together.

"Who is coming to fetch Harry this afternoon?" Mr. Weasley asked as everyone sat down at the table and began to dig into their lunch.

"We'll come!" The twins both said, Phoenix kicked both of them from under the table, but they didn't flinch. She didn't want them to proceed with this prank on Harry's cousin. She knew that Mrs. Weasley would go ballistic and the fact that Dudley was a muggle would get them into more trouble than they probably bargained for.

"Nix do you want to come? I assume you would because the twins are coming," Ron asked her, but Phoenix shook her head.

"There's already enough going and I'm not going to be of much help. I will just stay here; the twins will be fine without me. They'll be miserable, but they'll be fine." Phoenix joked; it was her turn to receive a kick from the twins.

Mr. Weasley, Ron and the twins left shortly after lunch. Phoenix ventured out into the Weasley's garden, it was large there were plenty of weeds, grass that looked as though it needed cutting, plants that Phoenix had never encountered at her small cottage that were spilling from their flowerbeds and a big green pond that was full of frogs. She sat down beside the pond, resting her back against a tree. She closed her eyes as the warm breeze swept across her face, her hair turning to an electric blue colour. When she opened her eyes, she saw Ginny and Hermione both striding towards her.

"Hello," Phoenix greeted them happily as they both set themselves down beside her.

"Hey Nix," They chirmed back, Hermione quickly pulled out a book and began reading. Phoenix couldn't help but smile at how much Hermione reminded Phoenix of herself, both of them were muggle born and knew more about the Wizarding world than both their best friends did.

"So Nix, how has your summer been?" Ginny asked, sitting cross legged beside Phoenix "By the way I love your hair,"

"Thanks and it was boring. Will had some pretty interesting stories about being an Auror, took me to a few concerts and taught me how to skateboard, it's like riding on a board," she added at Ginny's look of confusion, "you would think Anastasia would have some interesting stories with her training to be a healer but the most interesting one was about a Muggle who had been cursed by some kind of jinxed object, who kept projectile vomiting over her for a good half an hour."

Ginny made a noise between disgust and laughter, "Sounds lovely. I've been waiting for you and Hermione to come all summer, all my family talk about it either dragons or Quidditch. Don't get me wrong, dragons are interesting and I love Quidditch, but sometimes I just want to gossip and _not_ hear about Percy's report on cauldron bottoms,"

"How is his report coming along by the way?" Phoenix asked and Hermione giggled from behind her book.

"It's going as great as your summer Nix," Hermione said, closing her book and setting it down on the grass in front of her.

From somewhere behind them, a sound of footsteps could be heard. The three girls looked around, expecting to see one of the Weasley's, but instead it was a gaggle of gnomes emerging from the overgrown bushes.

"Dad is too nice to them," Ginny sighed, shaking her head and getting to her feet, "come on, let's go into my room before Mum comes out and gets us to de-gnome the garden again," Hermione and Phoenix followed Ginny happily.

They all entered Ginny's room; it was a small room but a bright room. The walls were painted pink and there were large posters around the room. On one wall, there was a poster of Gwenog Jones, the Beater and captain for the Holyhead Harpies, on the other wall was a poster of the wizarding band the Weird Sisters. Ginny's desk stood in front of a large window where the orchard that the Weasley's and Phoenix often played Quidditch could be seen. Her bed was squashed up against the wall and a large mattress was in the middle of the room, where Hermione and Phoenix had both been sleeping, their trunks had been tucked away under Ginny's bed.

The girls all sat down on Ginny's bed and once again, Hermione opened her book and began reading. Ginny rolled her eyes at Phoenix, who merely gave her a small smile.

"Has Fred and George told you about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Ginny asked Phoenix as they both crossed their legs on the small bed, Phoenix shot Ginny a confused look and she began to explain, "Mum found a huge stack of order forms when she was cleaning their room, there were price-lists for practical jokes they've been developing in their room. All sorts of things, fake wands and tricks sweets, absolutely brilliant I must say. But some of the things were – well, all of it, really – was a tad bit dangerous. They said they were planning to sell them at Hogwarts and make some money but – well you know Mum – she was furious. You know as well, she was mad at them for not getting as many OWLs as she had hoped," Ginny sighed and Phoenix felt her stomach flipped, she hated hearing about the twins arguments with their mother, "And then there was the big row, because well, mum wants them to go work in the Ministry of Magic like Dad and Percy, but they told her all they wanted to do was open a joke-shop."

"Oh dear," Phoenix looked down sadly at her hands, she felt slightly hurt that the twins had not told her about any of this.

"Yeah, she burned all the order forms, I've never seen Fred or George so mad at her," Ginny absentmindedly twirling her long red hair, "I'm surprised they didn't tell you."

Phoenix coughed awkwardly, "Yeah me too."

Their conversation was broken by an angry yell that could be heard from beneath Ginny's room "That _wasn't_ funny, Fred!" The unmistakeable yell of Mr. Weasley seemed to reverberate throughout Ginny's room, "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?" Phoenix had never heard Mr Weasley so angry.

"Here we go again," Ginny sighed, grabbing her pillow and covering her ears with it, "I kind of want to know what they are talking about but-"

"You dropped it on purpose!" Phoenix winced slightly as Mr. Weasley's yells grew louder, "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet—"

Hermione had even dropped her book down in curiosity, "I think they've pulled some sort of prank on Harry's cousin. That must mean Harry's here!"

"I think they've given him some of their Ton-Tongue Toffees," Ginny said, trying to fight back a smile and failing miserably.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!" Mr. Weasley yelled and then loud laughter could be heard from downstairs, but it was immediately broken when Mr. Weasley began to yell again, "It isn't funny! That sort of behaviour seriously undermines wizard Muggle relations!"

Ginny shot to her feet, "We should go downstairs, maybe we'll be able to save them and say hi to Harry."

Phoenix and Hermione mirrored her actions, getting to their feet and walking out of Ginny's room.

"What on earth have those twins done now?" Phoenix almost fell down the stairs when she heard Mrs Weasley mumble angrily behind her, "Sorry Phoenix dear,"

"It's okay Mrs – I mean Molly," She smiled at Phoenix as they all walked down the staircase and towards the kitchen.

"That's not the point!" Mr. Weasley's yells became slowly louder as they stood in the entrance to the kitchen, "You wait until I tell your mother—"

"Tell me what?" Mrs. Weasley stood in front of Phoenix, Ginny and Hermione, her hands were placed on her hips and I looked around the scene in front of me. Fred, George and Arthur all looked like a dear caught in headlights, Ron, Charlie and Bill all had their arms crossed over their chests, grimaces on their faces that looked as though they were trying desperately not to laugh. And standing, looking rather awkward was Harry Potter, the only known wizard to survive the killing curse and get away from the most powerful dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort.

"Oh hello, Harry, dear," Molly said, her voice sweetening slightly as she gave him a warm smile but her eyes quickly snapped back to Mr. Weasley. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

Mr. Weasley looked nervously at his wife briefly, while the three girls that stood beside Mrs. Weasley all smiled at Harry, who returned the smile. Phoenix looked over at Fred and George, who both quickly adverted their eyes from her icy glare and focused their attention back onto Mrs. Weasley who was staring at her husband.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, her tone becoming terribly tense.

Mr. Weasley shook his head, trying his very best to smile at his wife, "It's nothing, Molly, Fred and George just—but I've had words with them—"

Phoenix saw Molly's eyes flicker to the twins who had suddenly become very interested in the ceiling, "What have they done this time? If it's got anything to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes—"

Hermione managed to drag Harry and Ron out of the conversation and got them all to bring Harry's stuff into Ron's room, Ginny trailing behind them.

"Yeah, we'll come too," George tried following them up the stairs, but Mrs. Weasley shot her son a glowering look.

"You stay where you are!" She snapped, making the twins stop dead in their tracks.

Phoenix wanted to follow the others, but she felt obliged to stay for her best friends, so instead of following everyone up the stairs, she shot the twins an encouraging smile and sat down at the kitchen table with Bill and Charlie and quickly pretended to be perusing the Daily Prophet as Mrs. Weasley rounded on her husband and sons.

"So enlighten me Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley, her hands on her hips, "What did they do?"

Mr. Weasley flinched as he looked at his very angry wife and seem to begin to mumble what had happened, but his voice was so quiet that nobody could hear him.

"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said in a low and very dangerous voice.

"Well–," Mr. Weasley said in an unnaturally high voice, "they – um – they dropped one of their sweets at the Dursley's," Mr. Weasley began and Phoenix saw out of the corner of her eye, Mrs. Weasley nostrils flare, "Their son, Dudley – well – picked it up and – um – ate it."

"What?" Mrs. Weasley snapped and Fred and George looked at the carpet, looking mildly interested at the pattern and determined not to look at their mother.

"His tongue grew about four feet before Mr. and Mrs. Dursley would let me shrink it," said Mr. Weasley quietly.

The corners of Fred and George's mouth twitched but when Mrs. Weasley looked at the pair of them, their faces reminded rigid and innocent.

"He deserved it Mum," said Fred before Mrs. Weasley could open her mouth.

"Really?" said Mrs. Weasley in a harsh voice and Fred's mouth opened, and then closed, "Care to explain you two?"

"It was a joke," said George, "it wouldn't hurt him or anything."

"Really?" said Mrs. Weasley in very quiet, very dangerous voice, "how do you two know that if your father was not there he would have been perfectly fine.

"Yeah," said Fred with a shrug, "The effects only last for about half an hour."

"How could you be sure about that?" said Mrs. Weasley, "How could you be so sure that it wouldn't hurt him?"

Fred and George remained quite silent at this.

"But he's horrible to Harry," Fred whispered, "Isn't he Phoenix?"

Phoenix looked from the twins to Mrs. Weasley and nodded slowly, "Yeah he is Mrs. Weasley," she said, "Harry says that when they were seven Dudley tried to make him stand in a toilet."

Mrs. Weasley's face softened slightly and Phoenix knew that her adoration for Harry was battling with her disapproval for Fred and George's escapades.

"We were just getting him back!" said Fred.

By the look on Mrs. Weasley's face, Fred had clearly said the wrong thing.

"No matter what Dudley has done to Harry you have absolutely no right to play such a horrible trick on him! The pair of you should have more sense than that! Why on earth do you think that it was funny? In fact, you are lucky that you were not reported to the Ministry! I almost have half a mind to go and report you right now in fact! I hope this isn't how you plan to spend the rest of the year at school, I do not want half as many letters from Hogwarts as I got last year!"

"Bill, Charlie, would you two go and set the table outside?" said Mr. Weasley, Bill and Charlie obliged, walking briskly out of the door.

Phoenix stood up from the kitchen table too, mumbled, "I–I'm going to help," and with that, she walked behind Bill and Charlie made her way out of the door and into the warm summer air.


	3. Building Barriers

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: The support and reviews I have been getting on these chapters have been amazing so far. I love to hear what people think of the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

"_You keep me on the edge of my seat,  
I bite my tongue so you don't hear me."_

* * *

Instead of following Bill and Charlie to one of the sheds in the garden however, Phoenix lay down on her back on the grass beside the pond that she had sat only a few hours earlier with Ginny and Hermione.

She stared up at the clouds, watching the various shapes in the sky. She took particular interest in a cloud that was in the shape of a dolphin and watched as it moved very slowly across the bright blue sky. Her hand rose up in the air and traced her finger round its shape.

She heard the front door open, then close from somewhere in the distance and Phoenix sat herself up on her elbows and looked towards the Burrow where Fred and George walked over, their ears were a brighter red than their hair.

"Hello," she said greeted them as they sat down.

"I can't believe her!" said Fred, shaking his head almost angrily.

"You're not angry with her are you?" said Phoenix carefully.

Fred and George looked at each other, "No," said George, "we're not angry. We're just annoyed."

"Why?" said Phoenix.

"We just wish that she would stop expecting us to be like Bill, Charlie, or," Fred shuddered at the mere thought of it, "Percy. We are never going to be them or even remotely like them."

Phoenix frowned at Fred who had now became yanking pieces of grass with his hands, and then looked over at George, who were shrugged and shot her a small smile. "Give her time Fred," she said as she rested her head on George's shoulder, "Just give her time."

"I just can't fathom how she can't understand," said Fred, whose teeth were now gritted in anger.

Phoenix looked up at George, who spoke for her, "she only wants what is best for us Freddie and you know that. She just doesn't want us to be disappointed if it doesn't work out and we've even said that it may not work out."

"Why are you backing her up?" Fred snapped at his twins, his eyes gleaming slightly.

"She's our Mum, Fred and I know that you want her to accept our ambitions just as much as I do."

"Can we just stop talking about it?" Phoenix asked, staring across at Fred with a pleading look on her face. Fred opened his mouth to reply but Phoenix spoke again before he could interrupt, "please Fred? Before you say something that you regret." Fred nodded slowly in reply and Phoenix felt George's arm around her waist as he pulled her closer to him.

"Sorry Nix," Fred mumbled, looking guiltily at her and giving her a small smile. Phoenix narrowed her eyes at Fred, her face breaking out into a smile.

Loud crashing noises broke their silence. Phoenix and the twins whipped their heads around and saw that the source of the noises was Bill and Charlie, wands in the air. They were making two battered looking tables smash into each, high in the air, both of them attempting to knock each other's out of the air. Fred and George got to their feet quickly, George pulling Phoenix up to his feet, before they all cheered on Bill and Charlie as Ginny laughed and Hermione looked torn between amusement and worry.

The door to The Burrow opened from behind where Phoenix was standing and she saw Ron and Harry appear, both with looks of confusion on their faces, before they saw the two tables in the air and began laughing and cheering along with the others. Phoenix watched as the table that Bill was levitating caught Charlie's table with a very loud bang and knocked one of its battered legs off, causing the on-lookers of the battle roar with laughter.

"Will you keep it down?!"

Phoenix jumped at the sudden voice and look up to see Percy's head sticking out of a window on the second floor with a very angry look on his face. His hair was still very pink.

Billy grinned as he said, "Sorry, Perce, how're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," Percy said, clearly irritated as he slammed the window shut so sharply that it almost caused the window to shatter. Bill and Charlie directed the tables back down onto the ground, much to the disappointment of Fred and George. Then with a flick of Bill's wand, the table leg attached itself back to its table and conjured tablecloths out of nowhere.

* * *

"Why didn't you two tell me about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes then?" Phoenix asked as she sat herself beside Fred and Harry, opposite George and Charlie at the end of the table. It was seven o'clock and everyone including the nine of the Weasley's, Harry, Hermione and Phoenix were settled down at the two tables sitting underneath a clear dark blue sky.

Charlie almost chocked on his chicken pie and looked at each of the twins incredulously, "You didn't even tell her?" he asked.

"Er – well – to be honest, we knew that you wouldn't agree with it," said Fred, casting a weary look over at Phoenix.

"What do you mean?" She asked, she could feel herself glowing red and helped herself to some shepherd's pie.

"Well," started Fred, looking over at George, who didn't look at his twin as he was stuffing his face with some boiled potatoes, "we just thought that you would, well tell us off or something …"

Phoenix looked from Fred and George, a disbelieving look on her face, "You didn't tell me about your little business because you were scared I would tell you off?" Fred and George avoided her eye contact, "So much for telling me everything,"

"Pixy, we're sorry-" George began, trying to lean over the table to put a hand on Phoenix's shoulder, but she shrugged him off, plastering a smile on her face.

"It's fine, I understand."

"But-"

"I said it's fine." Said Phoenix through gritted teeth as she stabbed at her salad, "So who do you reckon is going to win?"

"It's got to be Ireland," Charlie said, his mouth full of potatoes, "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," Fred said, Phoenix looked up from attacking her food to see George staring at her. He looked at her as if to say, _are-you-okay?_ Phoenix returned the look with her best fake smile.

"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven. I wish England had got through. That match was embarrassing." Phoenix said before she stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork.

"What happened?" Harry's voice suddenly asked and Phoenix looked up to see him leaning closer beside her to join in the conversation.

Charlie spoke for her, speaking with a glum look on his face, "Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten, shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."

"Yeah Anastasia got tickets to see England play against Transylvania with her boyfriend, Felipe and she said she was embarrassed to be supporting them," said Phoenix, placing down her knife and fork and placing her plate on top of the stack of plates that was being floated around by Mr. Weasley.

"Isn't Ed and Will coming to the match tomorrow?" asked George.

"Yeah, he said their tickets aren't as good as ours though. Do you know where we are sitting?"

"No. Dad hasn't told us. I suspect he wants it to be a surprise," Fred shrugged before Mrs. Weasley bustled over to them and handed them all some homemade strawberry ice cream, which they all gladly took.

As the sky darkened, stars filling the deep purple sky above them, Mr. Weasley had conjured some candles to light the garden. Phoenix rested her head on Fred's shoulder, watching a moth dance lazily around one of the brightly burning candle, she breathed in the warm air and the pleasant smell of honeysuckle and the grass. Phoenix felt a feeling of content in her stomach and thought to herself, this was the way that she should be spending her summer, not feeling as though she was being lied to and purposely being kept in the dark. She closed her eyes, her hair turning to a deep midnight blue colour.

"Look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly, checking her watch, her eyes wide. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."

"Wow—hope it does this time!" said Harry eagerly, his eyes a-blaze with excitement. Phoenix smiled at him and couldn't help but silently agree.

"Well, I certainly don't! I shudder to think what the state of my in tray would be if I was away from work for five days." Percy said sharply, looking very disapprovingly at Harry.

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred, a lopsided smirk on his face that told Phoenix that the twins had something to do with the dragon dung in Percy's tray.

She watched as Percy's face turned extremely red, "That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway! It was nothing personal!"

"It was," Fred whispered to Harry, leaning over Phoenix as they all stood up from the table. "We sent it."

"And I suspect that Percy's hair is pink because of you guys too?" Harry asked the twins, who both looked at Harry with mock, hurt expressions.

"We would never do that to Perce!" George exclaimed, his hand over his chest, his eyes wild.

"Yeah, he is just another Metamorphmagus, isn't he Nix?" sniggered Fred, nudging Phoenix who shook her head at Harry, smiling.

Phoenix was woken up very unceremoniously as she always did when she stayed at the Burrow. The twins flung their bodies onto Phoenix's, almost winding her.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN ARE YOU DOING? BLOODY HELL HAVEN'T YOU TWO HEARD OF A DIET OR MAYBE EVEN PRIVACY?!" She managed to push off both of the twins with force she never knew she had. They toppled off of her and almost flattened Hermione who managed to escape in the nick of time to go to wake up Ron and Harry and Ginny had ran out to avoid being attacked by her brothers.

"Privacy…" George grinned as leaned against the door frame, stroking his chin as though he was stroking an imaginary beard, "have you ever heard Pixy use that world before Freddie?"

Phoenix glared at Fred and George but felt the corners of her lips tugging into a smile.

"Maybe once-"

"Maybe twice-"

"Maybe every day since she has been here-"

"Or maybe every day since we have known her-"

"I get the picture!" Phoenix put her hands in the air in surrender, "get out of the room, I need to get dressed!"

"Oh can't we stay for that?" sniggered George.

"GET OUT!"

When she had dressed in appropriate muggle clothing, which was a simple pair of jeans, a blue jumper and some worn out converses, she trudged groggily down the stairs alongside Ginny and Hermione who both looked as tired as Phoenix. They walked into the kitchen where Fred, George, Ron and Harry were sitting at the table looking as though they were going to fall asleep on their bacon sandwiches. Mr. Weasley however, who was dressed in a very good assortment of muggle clothing, looked absolutely delighted.

"Phoenix! I see you look much more awake than these boys!" He grimed, "What do you think of my muggle clothing? Harry said it's good, but I need a second opinion,"

"Yeah it's good, something my dad would wear really," Phoenix lied easily as Mrs. Weasley handed her a plate with a bacon sandwich on. Mr. Weasley beamed in delight as the three girls sat down at the breakfast table.

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny asked, rubbing her eyes and letting out a huge yawn as she sat down beside Fred.

"We've got a bit of a walk," Mr. Weasley said brightly.

"Walk? We're not walking to the match are we?" Harry asked, looking completely bemused.

"No, no, that's miles away Harry," Mr. Weasley shook his head, still shining brightly at all of them, "We should only need to take a short walk up Stoatshead Hill. As you can imagine it's very difficult for large numbers of witches and wizards to gather together without attracting some kind of Muggle curiosity. So we have to be careful about how we travel, thousands of wizards can't just fly across all parts of the world, nor can they take the Floo network…"

"George!" Everyone jumped as Mrs. Weasley stared murderously at her son, who looked at his mother innocently.

"What?" George said, his innocent tone couldn't deceive Phoenix and nor Mrs. Weasley.

"What is that in your pocket?"

"Nothing!" Phoenix noticed him flash a look at Fred, then looked back at his mother trying to look as innocent as best he could.

"Don't you even think about lying to me George!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply, pulling out her wand and pointing it directly at George's pocket and said, "Accio!"

Phoenix watched as a handful of colourful zoomed out of George's pocket, unmistakeably some Ton-Tongue Toffees. Phoenix quickly began to scoff down her sandwich so that she didn't have to watch the scene unfold.

"We told you to destroy them! We told you to get rid of the lot of them! They're dangerous! Empty your pockets; go on, both of you!"

Even as Phoenix tried not to look, she could still hear the sounds of cupboards and draws being banged open, toffees soring through the air right into Mrs. Weasley's out stretched hand and straight into the bin.

"Accio! Accio! Accio!" she bellowed looking quite frankly manic as toffees zoomed from all sorts of places, one whacking Phoenix on the back of the head as it zoomed out from the lining of George's pocket and into Mrs. Weasley's hand.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted, watching as Mrs. Weasley threw some more of the toffees straight into the bin.

"Oh, a fine way to spend six months! No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

_Oh no_, thought Phoenix, _here we go again_.

Phoenix didn't immediately follow the twins as they stomped away without uttering a single word to their mother, their rucksacks on their backs. She could tell that they were angry and she was in no mood to comfort them.

"Bye Phoenix dear," Mrs. Weasley said, pecking her on the cheek and giving her a warm hug, "make sure the twins behave themselves," she said.

"I will Molly," said Phoenix as she hoisted her rucksack on her back, "I'm sorry about what they did, I had no idea-"

"It's fine," Mrs. Weasley said shortly, "have a good time now."

And with that, Phoenix ran as fast as she could to catch up with the twins. Since both the twins had long and gangly legs and Phoenix extremely short it was hard to catch up with them. So instead she yelled after them, "Wait up!" She yelled, but they didn't turn around.

She began to run, aware that she probably looked like an oddly shaped turtle with her rucksack on her back, weighing her down slightly. The twins' strides, however big as they were, seemed to be slowing down as Phoenix approached them, out of breath.

"You … shouldn't … have … left like that," She panted, finishing her sentence very quickly and looking from one twin to the other, they both had the same expression, very angry but they immediately softened when they saw Phoenix.

Fred stopped and looked down at Phoenix, watching as her hair turned to a deep crimson and her eyes flashed red, "Sorry, we just,"

"Had enough," George finished, also stopping.

"Well I've had enough of you two and your mother yelling at each other," she snapped and both Fred and George looked at her in alarm as they both knew that her fiery temper was something that they would much rather avoid. "I'm not saying give in and say that you don't want to pursue your ideas, but instead of yelling all the time just try and _talk to her_," Phoenix looked at the twins with the weathering look that had grown accustom to.

George grimed across at his brother over Phoenix's head, "We've never tried that have we Fred?"

"What? Talking? No we would rather kiss a dementor."


	4. Secrets

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: This chapter is rather long but I hope you all enjoy. Thank you for the reviews they make writing this story so much more worthwhile. I have so many ideas for this story already. But I hope you enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think of the story so far.**

* * *

_"I've found my friends,_  
_They're in my head."_

* * *

Mr. Weasley led the way. Phoenix, Fred, George, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all trudged along in his wake, down narrows lanes through the village, in almost complete silence, all too tired to speak. The sky was lightening; the blackness was fading to a deep blue and the air was crisp, biting at their exposed necks and hands. Phoenix felt absolutely freezing in her jumper and shuddered slightly as they walked along a cobbled street.

"Cold Miss Lancaster?" Phoenix jumped when she heard George's voice from beside her; she turned to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"What makes you think I'm cold?" She asked, wrapping her arms around herself but that didn't help her warm up in the slightest.

George shrugged, "well firstly, I saw you shudder and secondly, your hair always turns blonde when you're cold or upset, so I took a wild guess," he grinned as he slid off his rucksack and took of his jacket, handing it to her, "here you go,"

Phoenix pouted slightly before taking the jacket. George grabbed Phoenix's rucksack and pulled it off her back so that she could slip on the jacket, which was much warmer than her jumper.

"Thanks," she said as she heaved her rucksack onto her back again, "but aren't you cold?"

"I'm a man Pixy, I never get cold."

After what felt like hours, they all began to climb up Stoatshead Hill. One or two times, Phoenix very nearly tumbled back into Harry and Ron when she stepped into a hidden rabbit hole, but was saved by Fred and George, who both grabbed her arms and pulled her up the hill with tremendous strength. Just as Phoenix was beginning to feel like she just wanted to lie down and take a nap for a good hours rest, they reached the very top of the hill.

"There goes my exercise for the day," panted Fred, collapsing to the ground dramatically, his arms and legs spread eagled on the grass.

"More like for the week," said George.

"For the month," retorted Fred.

"For the year," giggled Phoenix.

"For the rest of our lives," the three of them chorused.

"You three! No time to rest, we have to find the Portkey!" Mr. Weasley bellowed, causing them all to groan and beginning to search for the Portkey. Well, Fred remained on the group and George mimicked him.

Everybody spread out, trying to find the Portkey. Everyone expect Fred and George that was. They were both lying on the grass taking a nap on their rucksacks.

Suddenly, a new voice rang out through the sounds of people's footsteps on the mud and grass.

"Over here, Arthur! We've got it!"

Phoenix whirled around. She squinted her eyes to see two figures standing on the other side of the hilltop.

"Amos! Good to see you!" shouted Mr. Weasley, he smiled as he began walking towards the figures and the others followed, Phoenix however scrambled over to Fred and George to wake them.

"OUCH!" Fred yelled as Phoenix kicked him softly in the chest.

She rolled her eyes as she kicked George awake too, who was much more obedient than Fred and stood up immediately, looking around, "I didn't kick you that hard," she said as she and George pulled Fred to his feet.

"Well it hurt all the same."

The three of them strode towards the group of people in the other side of the Hilltop.

"Sorry everyone," George said briskly.

"We fell asleep," Fred continued, causing Phoenix to scoff.

Phoenix looked across at the two strangers and saw a wizard with a very rosy face and a brown beard; he was holding a very moldy old boot in his hand, which Phoenix immediately recognised it to be the Portkey. Phoenix knew him to be Amos Diggory, Cecilia knew him. She had pointed him out to her while they were in Diagon Alley once. He worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at the Ministry. Standing beside Amos was his son, Cedric Diggory. He was extremely good looking, Phoenix thought as she admired him quietly. She knew him as he was Captain and Seeker of the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team at Hogwarts.

Cedric waved good naturedly at Phoenix, who waved back. Fred and George simply nodded at him; Phoenix knew that they were thinking of the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff the previous year where they had beaten them.

Fred grinned when he saw the boot in Amos' hand, "Oh is that were Percy's old boot got to?" Everyone laughed, including Mr. Weasley but he stopped very quickly and shot a look at Fred, but he just grinned in return.

Amos looked at each of the four Weasley's, Harry, Hermione and Phoenix before saying, "All these yours, Arthur?"

"Oh no, only the redheads, well minus Phoenix, she's a Metamorphmagus, she always changes her hair colour," Phoenix pulled a piece of her hair in front of her eyes and saw that it had in fact turned a fiery red, she flicked her hair over her shoulder as it turned to a bright green. Mr. Weasley pointed to each of his children, saying each of their names, "That's Phoenix, a friend of Fred and George's. This is Hermione, friend of Ron's from school and that's Harry, another friend of Ron's from school-"

Phoenix watched as Amos did a double take, his eyes widening as he stared at Harry, "Bloody hell, Harry? Harry Potter? As in, The Boy Who Lived?"

"Er—yeah," Harry said awkwardly, flattening his fringe over his forehead nervously.

"Ced's talked about you, of course. Told us about playing against your team last year. I told them that will be something to tell the kids Ced! Beating Harry Potter!" Amos barked proudly, putting an arm around a very flushed Cedric.

Phoenix wanted to laugh. She saw Fred and George both scowl and stamped on both their feet, causing them to curse quietly in pain.

"Harry fell off his broom, Dad," he muttered to his father, his cheeks reddening, "I told you… we didn't win fairly, I asked for a rematch…"

"Yes, but you didn't fall off your broom, did you my boy?" Amos said so pompously that he reminded Phoenix of Percy. He slapped Cedric proudly on the back, causing Phoenix to snort into her hand and turn so she could keep her laughter quiet. "He is always so modest Ced is. We raised him to be a gentleman. But as the muggels say, the best man won. One falls off his broom, one stays on, you don't need to be a genius to tell which one's the better flier!"

Phoenix saw that Fred and George looked as though they were about to say something, so she coughed loudly. They turned to her and she shook her head.

Mr. Weasley checked his wristwatch before clearing his throat and saying, "Look! It's nearly time. Do you know whether we're waiting for any others, Amos? The Lovegoods maybe?"

"No, the Lovegoods have already been there for the week and the Fawcetts didn't manage to get tickets. They're missing out big time! I don't believe there are any more in this area, are there?

"Not that I know of. We'd better get ready, we have just under a minute…"

Phoenix, Fred and George all beamed at each other, linking arms with one another and striding towards the boot that was being held by Amos. They all stood in a very tight circle around the old boot. Phoenix was squished so tightly between Fred and George that she felt as though they were doing it on purpose. Phoenix and the twins reached out her index finger and placed it on the old boot.

Mr. Weasley stared down at his watched and began to count, "Three… two… one…"

Phoenix practically hated travelling by Portkey, Edmund always made her because he was scared of flying and also scared of muggle transport. She suddenly jerked forward and her feet left the ground and she was banging shoulders with Fred and George. Her finger felt like it was magically glued to the boot as they all speed through what sounded like wind and colour swirling in front of their eyes.

Then her slammed hard onto solid ground, she toppled over and landed on the ground. She groaned but before she could try and get to her feet, Fred and George both fell down on top of her. She squealed in pain, having one of the twins land on her was bad enough but both of them was a bit much.

She gasped for air as the twins scrambled to get to their feet. George bent down and pulled her to her feet, slinging his arm around her waist apologising profusely along with his brother.

"Seven past five from Stoatshead Hill," said a voice as Phoenix looked around to where they had arrived. It appeared to be a misty moor. Two harassed-looking wizards stood in front of them, one was holding a large golden watch, and the other a roll of parchment and a quill. They were both dressed in Muggle clothing, but, like most wizards, they were mismatched. The man who was holding the watch wore a tweed suit and, Phoenix giggled, with thigh-length galoshes, the one with the roll of parchment and a quill wore a kilt and a poncho.

"Love that poncho," muttered Fred and Phoenix stifled a laugh.

"He'll have to let me borrow it." said George.

"Morning, Basil," Mr. Weasley said brightly as he handed the boot to the man in the kilt, who threw it aside into a large box that appeared to be full of used Portkeys.

"Hello there, Arthur," said Basil ponderously, "Not on duty are you? It's all right or some… We've been here _all _night… You'd better get out of the way; we've got a big party coming in from the Black Forest at five fifteen. Hold on, I will find your campsite… Weasley … Weasley…" His eyes darted down his parchment list. "About a quarter of a mile's walk over there, first field you come to. Site manager is called Mr. Roberts. Diggory ... second field ... ask for Mr. Payne."

"Thanks, Basil," said Mr. Weasley.

They followed Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggory across the misty moor. After about twenty minutes, a small stone cottage came into view through the mist. They all said goodbye to the Diggorys, much to the happiness of Fred and George and approached the door of the cottage.

A man, who Phoenix immediately recognised as a Muggle, stood at the doorway, staring out at the hundreds and thousands of tents. Mr. Weasley had difficulty paying the Muggle, Mr. Roberts, who had come to the conclusion that Mr. Weasley was foreign.

"Foreign?" said Mr. Weasley, looking completely puzzled at Mr. Roberts.

"You're not the first one who's had trouble with money, I had two try and pay me with great gold coins the size of hubcaps ten minutes ago," Mr. Roberts said in his thick Yorkshire accent.

Phoenix snorted quietly at this.

"Did you really?

"It has never been this crowded," Mr. Roberts said as he rummaged in his tin for some change for Mr. Weasley.

"Hundreds of pre-bookings. People usually just turn up..."

"Is that right?" said Mr. Weasley, uneasily as he held out a hand for the change in Mr. Robert's hand,

"Aye, people from all over. Loads of foreigners. And not just foreigners. Weirdos, you know? There's a bloke walking 'round in a kilt and a poncho."

Fred, George, and Phoenix all grinned at the mention of the poncho.

"Shouldn't he?"

"It's like some sort of... I dunno ... like some sort of rally," said Mr. Roberts thoughtfully. "They all seem to know each other. Like a big party."

At this, a wizard Apparated beside Mr. Robert's front door who was sporting a pair of plus-fours.

"Obliviate!" he said pointedly, his wand pointing at Mr. Roberts.

Mr. Robert's eyes immediately slipped out of focus and a rather dreamy expression fell upon his face.

"A map of the campsite for you," Mr. Roberts said evenly, his eyes still slightly out of focus and handed his change to Mr. Weasley. "And your change."

"Thank you."

The group walked slowly between extensive rows of tents up the hazy field. Most of the tents, Phoenix noticed, looked nothing like a muggle tent should but she could tell that the owners had tried. Some tents had things like weather vanes, chimneys, and bellpulls. One tent even had a birdbath with birds chirping around it, and a fountain in a front garden that was attached.

As they got further down the rows of tents, George tapped on Phoenix's shoulder and pointed out a tent that had several peacocks tied to the entrancement.

"Definitely the Malfoys tent," she grinned up at George, who grinned back in a reply.

"Can't go five minutes without showing off."

They all reached the edge of the wood at the very top of the field; there was an empty space in front of them. A small sign was hammered into the ground, WEEZLY, was written in bold letters.

"Interesting spelling of your name," Phoenix laughed.

"I didn't think it was even possible to spell our name so wrong so many times," said Fred as he shook his head.

Harry, Hermione, and Phoenix helped Mr. Weasley put up the tent by hand. Phoenix had only been camping once with her father and her cousin, but she had never set up a tent as her father and her cousin had done it. However, she, Harry and Hermione managed to work out where a majority of the pegs and poles should go. Their progress was slightly hindered due to Mr. Weasley as he got too excited when using the mullet. But they finally managed to make a pair of beat-up looking tents.

Phoenix couldn't help but notice that the tent looked a little too small to accommodate ten people once Bill, Charlie and Percy arrived. Mr. Weasley crouched as he entered the slightly bigger tent.

"We will be a little bit crowded," he called from inside the tent, "but I think we will all fit in quite nicely. Come and have a look then everyone!"

Phoenix entered the tent and couldn't help but gasp. Phoenix had never been wizarding camping in her life and was blown away as she walked into what seemed to a small flat. With a kitchen, bathroom and a sitting room, with a moth-eaten sofa and ill-assorted chairs and four bunk beds pushed against the wall of the tent. The only set back however was that it smelt strongly of cat food.

"We won't be using it for long," Mr. Weasley began as he looked around at the bunk beds that Fred and George were now fighting over, evidently, George didn't want to sleep on the bottom bunk, "I borrowed this from Perkins who works in the office. He doesn't camp that much anymore, poor chap, he's got lumbago unfortunately."

Phoenix strode over to the twins who were still bickering and flicked them both on the ears.

"What was _that_ for?" George asked, rubbing his now red ear.

Phoenix shrugged in response, collapsing onto one of the bottom bunks, "I just saw the opportunity and took it,"

"We are going to need some water," Mr. Weasley announced, brandishing a dusty kettle in front of him.

"There's a tap that is marked on the map that Muggle gave us, it's just on the other side of the field," said Ron.

"_Just_ on the other side of the field?" said George, shaking his head.

"Well if it's _just_ on the other side of the field, then you can go because I am going back to sleep," said Fred, saluting Ron and then falling not so graciously on top of Phoenix.

"Fred stop harassing the poor girl," barked Mr. Weasley as Phoenix struggled from underneath Fred, pushing against his chest in an effort to heave him off of her, "and anyway you are not going back to sleep,"

"Why not?" Fred asked as Phoenix still thrashed and thrived under his weight.

"Because while Ron, Harry, and Hermione go and get some water from the tap, the rest of us will go and collect some wood for a fire-"

"But we have an oven," said Ron, pointing towards the kitchen, "Why can't we just-"

"Anti Muggle security Ronald," Mr. Weasley said brightly, "When Muggles camp out in tents, like cook by the means of fires. So we will be doing it the Muggle way!"

They took a quick look around the other tent was where Phoenix, Hermione and Ginny would be staying, it was a bit smaller, didn't have a kitchen but they all had a single bed and, much to their relief, didn't smell of cat food but of warm vanilla. Then Phoenix, the twins, Ginny, and Mr. Weasley all set off into the woods to collect some wood for the fire while Ron, Harry, and Hermione went with the kettle to get the water.

"Being a Muggle must completely suck," Fred groaned as Phoenix placed some more wood in Fred's arms.

"It doesn't suck, my father is completely fine with it," said Phoenix in a matter of fact tone, "It's probably because you are so used to using magic that you seem to be incompetent to doing things that could be easily be done manually,"

Fred said nothing but huffed in response.

Phoenix bent down and picked up more pieces of wood, inspecting them quickly before laying them in Fred's arms.

"Why are you checking the wood?" asked George, his eyebrows raised.

"Because if it's damp, it won't burn as easily as if it's dry," she said, "and also I don't want there to be a spider or anything on there as well,"

"Aw, is little Nixy scared of a little spider?" Fred said in a babyish voice.

"Do we have to kill all the ickle spiders for you?" George joined in, squishing Phoenix's cheeks between his hands.

"_George_—geroff—" She grabbed George's wrists in order to wiggle free from his grasp, but she couldn't help but smile, "hey do you want your jacket back?"

"What?" George looked down at the burgundy jacket that was wrapped around Phoenix, "Oh no, if you're cold keep it. I can take the cold Pixy,"

"Right."

"Have you three got enough wood for the fire?" Mr. Weasley's voice called from far behind them.

"Yeah dad," Fred called back, "Now let's head back, I can feel the splinters in my arms already."

* * *

When they returned from collecting the wood, they set it down outside the tent. Ron, Harry, and Hermione were yet to return with the water so as they waited Fred and Ginny decided to play a game of Wizarding chess while George and Phoenix watched while sitting on one of the moth eaten sofas in the boys' tent while Mr. Weasley chatted with some Ministry members at the entrance of the tent.

Phoenix watched in amusement as one of Ginny's black knights smashing one of Fred's white castles violently and taking its place.

"_YOU IDIOT! I COULD HAVE STOPPED THAT! YOU ARE LOSING TO A GIRL!" _Fred's small knights bellowed up at him, banishing his tiny white fits at Fred.

"Just because I am a girl doesn't mean that I am less capable to bet him," Ginny huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I agree with you Ginny!" said Phoenix, "Ron's chess set is awfully sexist,"

"They can be funny but yeah mostly they are sexist," agreed George.

"_WE ARE NO SUCH THING_!" Piped up one of Fred's kings in a very small and squeaky voice.

Ginny won the game, much to the dismay of both Fred and his white chess pieces. After the game of chess, Ginny and Phoenix decided on playing a muggle card game of snap, Fred and George were sitting on the sofa busying themselves over a large bunch of order forms while Mr. Weasley was sat just outside the tent, playing with the matches rather than his actual mission of lighting the fire.

"How long does getting water take?" Ginny asked as she placed a 7 of clubs card on top of a queen of heart.

"Well there are a lot of witches and wizards here so there are probably queuing or something," Phoenix placed down a 9 of spades as she spoke.

"I doubt that Ron would queue for very long," Ginny grinned as she placed a 9 of spades on top of Phoenix's, "SNAP!" Ginny slammed her hand down on the pile of cards and shuffled them in her pile.

"Bloody hell Ginny, you are pretty observant," Phoenix's face contorted slightly as she stared at her remaining cards.

"Ginny has a nick at beating people," Fred huffed.

George began to laugh obnoxiously loud and Ginny cast a look over at him.

"Shut up George, I bet you at Quidditch two weeks ago," Ginny said smugly.

It was the others turn to laugh. George's ears burned red, it was one of the many quirks of the Weasley boys. Phoenix couldn't help but grimace and think about how cute George looked when he was embarrassed. _Wait, what?_ She thought, _he's my best friend! He's not cute. Well maybe a little._

Before Fred could begin to torment his brother on his younger brother beating him at Quidditch, Mr. Weasley's head popped into the entrance to the tent, "The others are here!"

"You've been ages," George exclaimed as he, Fred, Phoenix and Ginny all exited the tent to see Harry, Ron and Hermione, Ron was carrying the water.

"Met a few people, have you not started the fire yet?" Ron asked as he set down the water.

Fred grinned, "Dad is having a bit of fun with the matches."

"Oops!" Phoenix spun around in time to see Mr. Weasley's eyes light up along with the match as it lighted. He then dropped it on the ground in surprise. Despite his failure, he looked as though he was having the time of his life.

Hermione quickly helped Mr. Weasley in lighting the fire. Although it took at least an hour before it was hot enough to begin in cook anything. Ministry workers kept hurrying past the tent, saying hello to Mr. Weasley sincerely as they passed. Mr. Weasley pointed out the members he knew, more for Harry and Hermione than Phoenix and his children because knew too much about the Ministry and its members to even pretend to be interested. Phoenix and the twins were watching a wizarding family as they chased their children round their tent which, Phoenix grimaced at, at a large chimney.

"that's Bode and Croaker… they're Unspeakables… And that's Phoenix's step-brothers, Edmund, he's also an Unspeakable and that's William, he's an Auror-"

Phoenix looked around at Mr. Weasley's words and saw her two step-brothers striding towards them. They waved genetically.

"I see your following regulations Arthur," Edmund grinned as he shook Mr. Weasley's hand and nodded curtly at everyone, smiling at Phoenix broadly.

"Well, it's interesting to be living like muggles," Mr. Weasley said brightly, "at least our tent doesn't have a chimney," his eyes casted over to the family that Phoenix and the twins had been watching.

"It does smell of cats though," said George, "I think a chimney would brighten the place up,"

Will grinned slightly, "It would, but saying that, it would raise a suspicion with the muggles. Mr. Robert has had to have a Memory Charm approximately ten times a day. Arnie was complaining about it, said that Ludo Bagman wasn't helping,"

"Apparently he's talking about Bludgers and Quaffles left right and centre," said Edmund, "Not taking a moment to care about anti Muggle security,"

"We saw one tent that had peacocks outside of it," said Phoenix, "like actual real live peacocks,"

"That would be the Malfoys," said Will.

George and Phoenix both looked at each other, bumping their fists together at their correct predication.

Edmund and Will didn't stay for very long, they were dragged away by two very attractive young girls, who Phoenix guessed was their dates for the occasion.

At long last, the fire was ready, both Fred and George cheered as Mr. Weasley slapped some eggs, bacon and sausages on the stove above the fire. Then Bill, Charlie, and Percy came ambling out of the woods toward them. Percy's hair, Phoenix noticed, was back to its usual colour but it had a slightly more pinkish tint to it.

"Just Apparated, Dad" Percy said pompously, "Ah, excellent, lunch, I'm starving!"

Just as they all finished their egg, sausage and bacon sandwiches, Mr. Weasley suddenly jumped to his feet, almost knocked aside the stove as he waved enthusiastically at a man who was wandering towards the group. "Ludo!"

It was Ludo Bagman. His outfit was enough to catch anybody's eyes. He was wearing Quidditch robes that were splashed in thick bright yellow and black stripes. A tremendously large picture of a wasp was on his chest. His robes were tight however, due to his enormous belly. He looked more like a schoolboy than the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports.

"Ahoy there Arthur old boy!" Bagman called back, his voice was full of anticipation and excitement.

"He's let himself go after his Quidditch career," Fred whispered as Ludo finally approached the campfire. Phoenix and George laughed silently before adverting their attention to a magical fire a few tents down from them, which a bright purple and was sending sparks high into the air. Percy immediately shot up, knocking his empty plate to the floor. He rushed join the group of Ministry workers that were rushing towards the tent, his hand outstretched, reminding Phoenix very much of his days as a prefect as he ran after Fred and George.

"That was my son Percy, he has just started at the Ministry," said Mr. Weasley, "—and this Fred-"

"I'm George!"

"Honestly dad, you're worse than mum."

"Sorry that's George and that's Fred. That's their best friend Phoenix— she's a Metamorphmagus—"

"A Metamorphmagus you say?" Ludo's eyes widen, "You don't see many of them anymore. Absolutely extraordinary,"

"Oh believe us, she is," said George. Phoenix blushed at George's words and busied herself with poking the fire.

"That's my son Ron and that's my daughter, Ginny and that's Ron's friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

As always when Harry was introduced, Ludo did the usual wide-eyed stare at Harry then his blue eyes travelled up to Harry's scar. Harry once again nervously flattened his hair over his forehead.

"This is the man we have to thank for the excellent tickets," Mr. Weasley beamed at Ludo, who just waved his hand airily, waving Mr. Weasley's gratitude aside.

"Do you want to bet on the match Arthur?" Ludo asked promptly, jingling his pockets which sounded as though they were full of a large amount of gold.

"I-I don't know Ludo— "

"We'll bet thirty seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts," Fred said as Phoenix watched, wide-eyed, as he and George got out all of their money, "that Ireland wins—"

"— but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch," said George.

"Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand," said Fred as he threw a fake wand in Ludo's outstretched hands.

"They're a load of rubbish Mr. Bagman, sir," Percy said apologetically, "They always come up with pathetic little things like this, you would be surprised at how much time they spend on making these childish things-" but Ludo didn't appear to be listening to him and if he was he certainly didn't agree with Percy. As he picked up the wand, it squawked loudly and turned into a rubber chicken and Ludo let out a roar of laughter and patted Fred on the back, who was grinning at Percy with a look of triumph on his face that he had impressed a worker at the Ministry.

"This is genius!" Ludo explained, "I would pay at least five Galleons for that!" Percy looked completely dumfounded at Ludo's clear delight at Fred and George's fake wand, which Percy so heartedly disapproved of.

Phoenix sat there, completely lost for words. Did they really just do that? She thought. Gave away all of their money and for what? A silly little bet.

As Mr. Weasley shunned Fred and George with his obvious disapproval and Ludo said something about adding an extra five Galleons for the fake wand, Phoenix yanked Fred and George towards her by their wrists.

"You know for someone so small it is surprising how much strength that you seem to have," said Fred.

"You two are crazy!" She exclaimed in a hushed voice "That was all of your money! What on earth were you thinking?" Fred and George rolled their eyes at each other, "I'm serious! Your mother would go—"

"Ballistic?"

"Insane?"

"Chop off our limbs and feed them to the gnomes?"

Phoenix shot them a warning look that they knew all too well than to ignore.

"Listen Nix," began Fred.

"It's our money," continued George, "and we wanted to make a bet,"

"What's life without a bit of risk I always say," smiled Fred.

Phoenix's face softened slightly, Fred and George looked serious about this. But she wished they didn't have to make a bet. The Weasley's never had much money and honestly Phoenix cared too much for them to see the looks of disappointment on their faces if they didn't win the bet.

"But all of your savings," Phoenix said softly.

"We know Pixy," said George.

"Just trust us," finished Fred and Phoenix knew that it was time to give up.

"Okay," she sighed, "but if everything doesn't go as you planned don't say that I told you so,"

Ludo Bagman produced a notebook and a quill out of thin air and noted down Fred and George's names. He handed George a slip of parchment, George thanked him before he pocketed in his jeans.

"Arthur boy, you couldn't do me a brew could you? I am looking for old Barty. He speaks about a hundred and my Bulgarian opposite is making things difficult,"

"Mr. Crouch?" Percy looked positively delighted at the mention of his boss. The look of displeasure was completely wiped off his face, "He actually speaks more than two hundred languages Mr. Bagman. He can speak Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll…"

"Anyone can speak Troll," sneered Fred, "All you have to do is point and grunt. Nix can speak it perfectly"

Both Phoenix and Percy shot Fred an annoyed glare, however Phoenix's glare was more jokingly whereas Percy's was particularly nasty.

"Gee thanks Freddie," said Phoenix, her voice filled with sarcasm, "You are the sweetest, you know that?"

Fred smiled lopsidedly at her, "Nix you really _do _know how to flatter a guy," he said.

"Have you had any news on the whereabouts on Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo?" Mr. Weasley asked as Ludo set himself down nicely on the grass, Phoenix noticing that he sat as far away from Percy as he could.

"No. Not a single of where on earth she could have gotten to," said Ludo gruffly, "But knowing Bertha she will turn up eventually. Bless her though, hasn't got the best memory and has a lack of direction."

Phoenix frowned at this, weren't Ministry trying to look for her, they just simply hoped that she would suddenly turn up?

"Surely it should be time to send wizards to look for her?" suggested Mr. Weasley as Percy handed everyone a cup of smoking hot tea.

Ludo sighed, his large shoulders slumping, "Crouch keeps saying that too Arthur, but we really can't send anyone out to look for her at the moment. Everything is so hectic what with—well here he is, Barty!"

Phoenix jumped slightly, causing some of the scolding hot tea to trickle down her hand, as there was a loud pop and a wizard Apparated only a few feet away from the group nestled around the fire. Barty Crouch was the complete opposite to Ludo Bagman with his old Wasp robes on and Phoenix wasn't at all surprised as to why Percy idolised him so much.

"Here it comes," murmured George.

"Percy's going to go all shy and shutter," continued Fred.

"I hate it when you do that," Phoenix interrupted.

"Hate what?" The twins said at the same time.

"Finish each other's sentences," said Phoenix exasperatedly, "It freaks me out!"

Fred and George both smiled their identical lopsided smile.

"You should be used to it by now Nix," said Fred.

"I am but that doesn't mean it still freaks me out."

"Mr. Crouch!" said Percy, his voice was so hushed and breathless that he sounded as though he was going to faint. Both Fred and George stifled their laughter by taking long gulps of their cups of tea as Percy sunk low into a bow, "Would you like a cup of tea also?"

"Oh, yes of course. Thank you, Weatherby."

Fred and George spluttered into their cups. Phoenix, was had thankfully not been drinking her tea, was giggling silently.

"Weatherby," George whispered breathlessly, his voice shaking with silent laughter.

"Do you think he notices that Weatherby's hair is slightly pink?" Phoenix asked, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile.

Fred smiled dreamily, "maybe," he said.

"Oh details!" Ludo's voice suddenly boomed into their hushed conversation. "They've signed and they've agreed, haven't they Barty? I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts—"

"Thank you for the tea, Weatherby," Mr. Crouch said very suddenly and sharply, "We need to see to the Bulgarians Ludo."

Mr. Crouch gave his untouched cup of tea back to Percy and he and Mr. Bagman got to their feet. Phoenix scowled slightly when she heard Ludo's pockets jingle with gold.

"I will see you all at the match later no doubt!" Ludo said brightly, "I'm commentating!"

He waved at the group, Mr. Crouch inclined his head, and with a pop they both Disapparated.

"What's going on at Hogwarts, Dad?" asked Fred, almost dropping his cup of tea.

"Boys, you will find out sooner or later no doubt," said Mr. Weasley as he drained his cup.

"It is classified information. You will find out once you arrive at school and when the Ministry decides to release it," Percy hotly, still clutching Mr. Crouch's untouched cup of tea like it was some kind of holy grail, "Mr. Crouch was quite right not to blurt out about it."

Fred shot Percy a menacing look before saying, "Oh shut up, Weatherby."


	5. The Quidditch World Cup

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: I'm not exactly proud of this chapter because Quidditch matches are not the easiest to write but I hope that you enjoy the interactions within this chapter anyhow. Thank you for the reviews and support so far.**

* * *

"_I don't ever wanna know  
What it feels like to be a shadow of myself."_

* * *

Excitement hung in the air over the thousands of tents like a blanket. The dusk air itself seemed to be a riff with the anticipation of the upcoming match. As darkness fell millions of stars littered the sky, winking down at the campsite. The Ministry had seemed to given up preventing the inevitable magic that was now breaking out across the site.

Salesman Apparated everywhere that Phoenix looked, all pushing carts or carrying trays full of the most remarkable merchandise that Phoenix had ever seen. Phoenix couldn't help but purchase a pointed green hat with luminous dancing shamrocks shattered on it, a small model of a Firebolt and she also brought both Fred and George, despite their refusal, large green rosettes as they had spent their savings on the bet.

"I see that you are supporting Ireland," grinned Fred as he gestured at not only Phoenix's green hat, but also her vivid green hair and green eyes that glimmered like the shamrocks on her hat.

"You have excellent observation skills Fred," said Phoenix as she forcefully put the rosette into Fred's hand, who simply grinned in gratitude.

"His observation skills do amaze us all indeed Pixy," said George, who was already wearing his green rosette, "your hair looks cool by the hair," he commented, before frowning slightly, "so does your eyes, but I think your blue eyes look nicer."

Phoenix couldn't help but blush.

Suddenly a booming gong sounded from beyond the woods, and all at once, red and green lanterns ignited in the hundreds of trees, lighting a path to the field.

Phoenix gripped both Fred and George's arms, her eyes ablaze with excitement as Mr. Weasley turned to them all, his excitement mirroring his children's and their friends as he said, "It's time! Come on, let's go!"

* * *

When they emerged on the other side of the forest, in front of them was a colossal sized stadium, Phoenix stared, open-mouthed and she couldn't help but feel, for the millionth time in the past years of her lives, that magic was truly astonishing.

"Prime seats Arthur!" said a Ministry witch that stood at one of what seemed to be hundreds of entrances as she checked their tickets, "Top Box! Go straight upstairs and as high as you can go!"

Now Phoenix knew why her step-brothers kept saying they had amazing tickets.

Truthfully, Phoenix had never seen something so unbelievable. Even as they walked up many flights of purple carpeted stairs, her mouth was still slightly ajar in surprise.

"We are so high up!" exclaimed Phoenix, looking both left and right to the stands that surrounded them.

"You are not going to tell me you are scared of highs as well as spiders!" George cried dramatically, slinging one of his arms around his small companion as they reached the very top of the staircase.

"No I'm not," said Phoenix, cracking a smile, "and I am not scared of spiders!"

"Whatever makes you sleep at night," George mused as they entered the top box, the most highest point of the stadium, located halfway between the immense golden gold posts.

Phoenix sat herself beside George and Ginny, her heart racing as she looked around at the astonishing view in front of her eyes. A sea of witches and wizards were in their seats, the red and green colours seemed to glitter breathtakingly. It was truly a view in which she could have never imagined.

"Bloody hell," Phoenix exclaimed, her eyes looking across at a massive blackboard that was directly at eyelevel with her, gold lettering dancing across it, advertising various wizarding items.

_The Bluebottle: A Broom for All the Family—safe, reliable, and with Built in Anti Burgler Buzzer… Mrs. Shower's All Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!… Gladrags Wizardwear—London, Paris, Hogsmeade…_

"I've never seen anything like it," said Ginny, "and usually I am quite unfazed by most things when it comes to magic, but this is just-"

"I know," Phoenix finished, "my dad took me to a muggle concert once to see Oasis but it doesn't compare to this,"

Fred, George and Ginny all frowned at Phoenix, who was still ogling at the view, "What's an Oasis?" quizzed George.

Phoenix smiled, shaking her head slightly, "it's a band – you know – like the Weird Sisters,"

"Oh," the three Weasley children chorused.

"Good evening Fudge," a cold, drooling, all too familiar voice sounded behind them. It was the voice of Lucius Malfoy. Phoenix turned in her seat to see that he was closely followed by his son, Draco, and a woman that Phoenix recognised to be Narcissa Malfoy, which so happened to be Phoenix's adoring step-aunt.

Cecilia and Narcissa were sisters, but they were not at all close, in fact Cecilia only keeps in contact with one of her three sisters, Andromeda Tonks. Both Andromeda and Cecilia had been disowned because Andromeda had married a muggle-born and Cecilia had married a muggle instead of pure-bloods. Her other sister was indeed Bellatrix Lestrange, who was surviving life imprisonment in Azkaban for the torture of two Aurors.

Narcissa looked much like Cecilia, her blonde hair was almost identical and she was slender, but unlike Cecilia, Narcissa didn't have a kind, loving face, but a look on her face that could only be described as breathing in an unpleasant smell. Her beady eyes swept across the row that the Weasley party were situated, before she spotted Phoenix and a smug kind of look appeared on her face.

"Good lord, Arthur," Phoenix turned her head from her step-aunt to Mr. Malfoy who had a smug look on his face, identical to his wife. "What on earth did you sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have cost that much?"

Phoenix gritted her teeth and curled her fits, shaking her head furiously at his words. She was glad that the Minister of Magic was in close proximity overwise there would be a repeat of what had happened a few years previous between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy in Flourish and Blotts' bookshop where the pair had issued a fight.

Phoenix did not like to hate people, but the Malfoy's were one of the exceptions. Mr. Malfoy's eyes flickered from Hermione, who was pink in the face but staring at him determinedly, to Phoenix, a malicious smile appearing upon his face. Phoenix knew exactly what he was thinking. The Malfoys seemed to marvel that they were purebloods and anybody who was of Muggle descent, like her and Hermione, was dirt upon their shoes. Phoenix stared back with equal dislike edged on her face.

Then Mr. Malfoy nodded curtly to Mr. Weasley and along with his son and his wife made their way down the lines towards their seats.

"It's hard to believe that Cecilia is related to that women!" Phoenix said in a hushed voice to George, shaking her head angrily.

George was still glaring at the Malfoys in their seats when he answered, "I know, at least you don't have to spend Christmas with them."

Phoenix sniggered, "imagine that eh? Maybe I could stuff Draco's head up the turkeys-"

"Ladies and gentlemen… welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty second Quidditch World Cup!" Exactly where Draco's head was going to be stuffed, George did not find out, as a roar sounded from the spectators, as they screamed and clapped loudly, waving their flags madly so it looks as though waves were spilling out through the crowds. Roars of national anthems began and Phoenix's heart rate increased, her mind completely cut off from the Malfoys.

The blackboard was now wiped clear of its final message of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce… the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The right hand side of the stands, roared, their block a solid scarlet as thousands upon thousands of flags were waved.

"What do you think they've brought?" Fred asked excitedly, leaning forward to see the field.

Phoenix mimicked his actions and realised the Bulgarian Mascots at once, Veela. She watched as what looked like a hundred veela seemed to glide out onto the field, their white gold hair swam out behind them without any wind, their skin seemingly shining. She smirked and leaned back in her seat so as not to see the veela beginning to dance, but to watch the boy's reactions to them, which of course would be worth it. The music began and instantly a glazed look swept over all of the Weasley's boys faces.

Ginny and Phoenix giggled as they watched as Harry was stood up, one of his legs resting upon the wall of the box as if he were stretching for ballet, Ron was frozen in a position that looked as though he were about to jump over the wall, whereas Fred and George were ripping off their rosettes.

There were roars of anger; the crowd clearly did not want the veela to go, the Weasley boys, minus Mr. Weasley, joined in. Phoenix shook her head, smiling as she grabbed both Fred and George's rosettes before they threw them from the box.

"Don't throw them away yet," said Phoenix as she pinned them back onto each of their jackets, "Ireland's mascots haven't even come on."

"What?" said Fred; his eyes looked slightly glazed as he stared open-mouthed at the veela that were now lined up along the Bulgarian side of the field.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice that was reverberating through the stadium, "kindly put your wands in the air… for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

In the blink of an eye, a flash of Irish green and gold zoomed into the stadium like a comet. Phoenix, Fred and George yelled their appreciation as the comet did a lap of the stadium, suddenly splitting into two smaller comets, zooming at light speed towards the goal posts. A glittering rainbow arced out of nowhere across the field, connected by the two balls of light. Phoenix aaaahed, reminded of firework display she and her father had seen a few years ago at New Years in London. In a flash, the rainbow glimmered and faded; the levitating balls of lights crashed together and spiralled as one, magically forming a colossal glittering shamrock that rose up into the sky, igniting the stadium in a green light.

"This is amazing!" exclaimed Phoenix, staring at the shamrock shimmering in the night sky as what looked as if it was golden rain falling from it. Phoenix realised that it was golden coins that were raining from it, clanging as they hit the ground. She squinted as the large shamrocks and saw that it was in fact leprechauns were actually formatting it, all carrying a small lamp of either gold or green.

The shamrock faded and the leprechauns slowly fell down onto the field and lined up opposite the veela on the Irish side.

Ludo Bagman yelled each of the teams player's names and each of them zoomed out onto the pitch, they were simply blurs of green and red as they got into their positions and the referee also zoomed onto the pitch.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Ludo Bagma, his voiced echoed over the screams and yells from the crowd, "And it's Mullet! Troy! Moran! Dimitrov! Back to Mullet! Troy! Levski! Moran!"

The speed of the players was simply unimaginable. The Chasers that were throwing the Quaffle to one another were so fast that Ludo only had time to say their names. Phoenix's eyes were darting around, trying to keep up with the speed of the match.

"TROY SCORES!" roared Ludo's voice, the ground underneath Phoenix's feet violently shook as the entire either cheered or booed, "Ten zero to Ireland!"

Phoenix, Ginny and Hermione waved their arms madly in the air as Troy did a lap of honour around the field. Fred and George openly laughed at each of them, both joining in exasperatedly. Phoenix grinned slightly as she saw the veela sitting at the sidelines, looking sulky as the leprechauns had formed the shimmering shamrock once again in celebration.

"The Chasers are amazing!" Yelled Fred, leaning across George to talk to Phoenix as everyone cheered for Ireland who had scored for the second time, "You should take notes Nix,"

"Don't worry I am!" She replied. Fred was right, the Irish Chasers were sensational. Not only were they superb flyers but their teamwork and very well-coordinated movements and Phoenix couldn't help but take mental notes for their tactics for when she was next playing Quidditch.

When the Irish scored for a third time, the match quickly became even faster and ruthless. It minded Phoenix was heavily of Gryffindor's brutal match against Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup Final at Hogwarts, which was one of the most vicious game of Quidditch that she had ever played in. Derrick and Bole, Slytherin's beaters, had aimed a Bludger at Phoenix, which knocked her off her broom. Fred and George both them preceded in throwing their beaters bats at Derrick and Bole which got each of the teams penalties. As the Bulgarian Beaters, Volkov and Vulchanov, were pelting the Bludgers at the Irish Chasers, sadly preventing them to perform moves that Phoenix knew would have scored them a goal. Finally, Ivanova dodged the Irish Keeper, Ryan, and managed to score Bulgaria's first goal of the match.

"Fingers in your ears!" Mr. Weasley yelled over the sounds of applause as the veela began their celebration. Fred and George didn't need to be told twice, their concentration was clearly set upon the match, and did as Mr. Weasley said and closed their eyes for good measure. When they had opened their eyes again, the veela's dancing had stopped and Bulgaria had the possession of the Quaffle.

"Dimitrov! Levski! Dimitrov! Ivanova—oh I say!" roared Bagman.

Phoenix gasped, grabbing the first hand she felt as she and the entire stadium watched as the Seekers of both teams, Krum and Lynch, plummeted through the Chasers at unbelievable speed. They were both going to crash. Suddenly, at the last second, Krum pulled out of the dive superbly and zoomed off. Lynch on the other hand; hit the ground and a sickening thud that could be heard over the loud silence of the crowd.

"Fool!" bellowed Mr. Weasley, "Krum was feinting!"

"It's time out!" yelled Bagman's voice, over the groans of the Irish supporters "as trained mediwizards hurry onto the field to examine Aidan Lynch!"

Phoenix let out a sigh of relief and suddenly realised that she squeezing onto somebody's hand. She looked down and saw that it was George's. He looked down at her and grinned.

"Did that give you a fright?" He teased, using his hand to guide hers so that it moved around in a circle. Phoenix felt her face turn pink and her hair turned to a vibrant fiery red, "thought so." Phoenix smiled and shook her head, smiling as her hair turned back to the Irish green.

"He'll be okay, he only got ploughed!" Charlie said reassuringly to, who Ginny was leaning over the side of the box, looking a mix between scared and worried. "Which is what Krum was after, of course…"

After only a few minutes, Lynch was on his feet and loud cheers from the Irish supporters echoed to the corners of the stadium.

When Mostafa blew his whistle again, signally the continuation of the match, the Chasers immediately came into action, their teamwork, tactics and their flying were unlike anything Phoenix had ever seen before.

In under twenty more minutes, where the match got dirtier and dirtier, Ireland had bagged ten more goals were now leading by one hundred and thirty points to ten.

"And Mostafa takes the Bulgarian Keeper to task for cobbing—excessive use of elbows! yes, it's a penalty to Ireland!"

Phoenix, who had been busying trying to find her hat, that had fallen off when George had raised his arms in victory for Ireland's previous goal, she had missed what had happened. "What did I miss?"

"I don't know myself," said Ginny, "it all happened so fast."

"Mullet had the Quaffle and then Zograf came out of nowhere," said George, "I have no idea what happened after that, but it was a foul."

The leprechauns were now angrily rising into the air, we now, instead of forming the glittering shamrock, formed the words, 'HA HA HA!'.

"I love the Irish," Fred said dreamily, smiling at the leprechauns' new formation.

"The veela don't look happy," said Phoenix smugly. The veela definitely did not look happy. They tossed their hair angrily, and started to dance again. The Weasley boys and Harry all stuffed their fingers back into their ears and screwed up their eyes. But Phoenix wasn't paying attention to the veela, but the referee.

"Ginny, look at the referee!" Ginny's eyes found the referee and both she and Phoenix roared with laughter, and Phoenix tugged on George's arm and poked Fred's.

"Huh?" said George.

"Look at the referee!"

On the field, Hassan Mostafa had demounted his broom directly in front of the veela, who were still dancing, was flexing his muscles and smoothing his moustache exasperatedly. Fred and George both roared with laughter, both of them immediately impersonating him.

"Now, we can't have that!" said a highly amused Ludo Bagman, "Somebody slap the referee!"

A mediwizard tore his way across the field, his fingers stuffed into his own ears like the Weasley boys and Harry had done, and kicked Mostafa hard in the shins. Mostafa immediately reacted, looking extremely flushed and began to shout widely at the veela, who by now had stopped their dancing and were looking practically murderous.

"And unless I'm much mistaken, Mostafa is actually attempting to send off the Bulgarian team mascots!" said Ludo, now attempting not to laugh; "Now there's something we haven't seen before… Oh this could turn nasty…"

Indeed it did turn nasty. Volkov and Vulchanov, landed beside Mostafa and began to argue angrily with him. George poked Phoenix's arm and pointed towards the leprechauns, whose formation was now the words 'HEE, HEE, HEE'. The whistle blew furiously once again.

"Two penalties for Ireland!" roared Ludo and the Bulgarian crowd groaned and yelled in anger, "And Volkov and Vulchanov had better get back on those brooms… yes… there they go… and Troy takes the Quaffle…"

The match, if possible, had returned even dirtier. After Ireland was awarded a penalty after Dimitrov flew straight at Moran, who had the Quaffle, almost knocking her off her broom.

"Dimitrov skins Moran—deliberately flying to collide there—and it's got to be another penalty—yes, there's the whistle!"

The leprechauns, who Phoenix had taken an extreme liking to, had made a new formation of a giant hand, which was making an extremely rude sign directed at the veela on the other side.

"They're not going to like that," laughed Phoenix, "the leprechauns just seem to love annoying the veela."

"Don't blame them," said Ginny in a quiet voice.

Instead of the veela's usual dancing, they tore across the field and began to throw handfuls of burning fire at the leprechauns. They didn't look practically beautiful or glimmering now, they seemed to resemble rather ugly looking birds, with long and scaly wings that were bursting from their shoulders.

"And that, boys, is why you should never go for looks alone!"

"Levski—Dimitrov—Moran—Troy—Mullet—Ivanova—Moran again—Moran—MORAN SCORES!"

The roars of Irish cheers was not heard over the shrieks of the veela, that Ministry wizards were now trying to separate, and the roars of anger from the Bulgarian supporters. But Phoenix's concentration was quickly put back to the match just in time to see Quigley, the Irish Beater, swung his bat furiously at a Bludger, but missed, and it smashed right into Krum's face.

"Oh my-" Phoenix started as she saw blood flowing out of Krum's nose, which looked as though it had broken. But the whistle was not blown as Mostafa's broom tail was on fire from one of the veela's balls of fire. "He can't play like that. He could really hurt himself!"

"You sound like Ron-" said Fred.

"Lynch has seen the Snitch!" George bellowed as he pointed to Lynch. The Irish seeker had suddenly gone into a full blown dive. A look of the upmost concentration of his face as he zoomed after the small golden ball. Phoenix and Ginny screamed the seeker on, waving their arms madly in the air in support. But Krum was on his tail now, blood still flowing from his nose and through the air behind him. The Snitch suddenly changed its direction, tearing through the air towards the ground and both Seekers followed.

"They're going to crash again!" yelled Ginny, hanging off the edge of the box to see the Seekers.

"Krum isn't-" shrieked Fred.

"Lynch is though!" yelled George.

George was right. Once again, Lynch hit the ground in an agonisingly painful way and once again, Phoenix grabbed George's hand as her eyes darted around for the snitch.

"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, he too was leaning over the edge of the box.

"He's got it—Krum's got it—it's all over!" shouted Harry from along the row.

Harry was right. Krum, his nose broken and his face and robes covered in blood, was gliding through the air, his hand held high and a golden ball secured tightly in his hands.

Many of the crowd had not realised what had happened and slowly, as the scoreboard flashed BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170, the stadium rumbled as the Irish supporters screams and cheers of triumphant silenced Bulgaria's groans and yells of fury.

"IRELAND WINS!" Ludo bellowed, sound somewhat surprised, "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH—BUT IRELAND WINS—good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"You can stop holding my hand now," a smirking George whispered in Phoenix's ear.

"What?" Phoenix said, looking back down at her hands again and immediately withdrawing her hands from his, "Sorry."

"WE WON THE BET!" Fred bellowed, punching the air with his fist and jumping about in the top box, "WE WON THE BET!"


	6. Fear

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: I am so excited for Phoenix and the twins to arrive back at school! Thank you for the support so far and I hope you all enjoy this chapter because I really enjoyed writing this chapter.**

* * *

"_If you never break you'll never know  
how to put yourself back together."_

* * *

"WE WON!" Bellowed Fred, punching the air triumphantly as he walked alongside George, who was carrying Phoenix on his back, her eyes back to their natural ocean blue and although her hair was still a great green in triumphant of Irish's winning.

"I can't believe you actually won that bet," said Phoenix in disbelief. "I mean it was so accurate how on earth did you see that?"

The outcome of the match was what nobody expected, Ludo even said it himself after he had given Fred and George their gold, which was now jingling in their pockets.

"Don't you dare tell your mother you two have been gambling," Mr. Weasley instructed Fred and George as they walked along the lantern light path leading back to the campsite.

"Don't worry, Dad," said Fred airily, waving his father's words away with his hands.

"Yeah, Dad, we have plans for this money. We don't want it to be confiscated."

Phoenix frowned at George's words, slightly confused. But she decided that she would ask them when they weren't so hyped up on the match.

When they finally reached their tents only ten minutes later, Phoenix still on George's back, nobody felt like sleeping, and the noise of the Irish singing their national anthem in victory was not going to help at all. Mr. Weasley decided that they all could have a cup of smoking hot chocolate before going to bed.

"Did you see Krum's flying? It was superb!" Ron exclaimed for about the millionth time.

Phoenix rolled her eyes, "yes Ron, for the millionth time, Krum's flying was out of this world. Now will you please shut up about Krum?"

Fred and Ron were soon arguing about the match, Mr. Weasley and Charlie were disagreeing about cobbing and the rest were talking happily about the match.

"My favourite bit was when the referrer was trying to impress the veela," said Hermione, grinning widely.

"That was so funny," agreed Phoenix, curling her hands around her steaming mug, "did you see Harry doing his pirouettes when the veela were dancing?"

Harry looked slightly flustered but he joined in the laughter all the same.

Ginny soon fell asleep table beside the small table, spilling her hot chocolate all over the floor, so Mr. Weasley told Bill to take Ginny to bed and insist everyone to turn in.

Hermione and Phoenix didn't change into their pajamas and they both collapsed on their beds either side of Ginny and fell asleep to the sound of drunken singing and the odd bangs.

* * *

"Phoenix, we have to get up," a hurried voice whispered in her ear, shaking her awake.

"Huh?" Phoenix mumbled, rubbing her eyes and rolling over to see Mr. Weasley, now waking up Hermione and Ginny.

"Something's wrong," and at once, Phoenix could tell that something was indeed wrong. There was no longer any singing; instead she could hear screams of terror and people running past the tent. Her eyes widen and she clambered out of bed, grabbing her wand that was on the floor beside her, "Ginny!"

Ginny slowly woke up, confused, but realised quickly too that something was wrong and grabbed her wand before they rushed out of the tent to join Harry, Ron, Fred and George and they could now see the scene that played in front of them. People were running away into the woods, rushing away from something that was moving towards them, something that was producing very odd flashes of light and bangs that sounded of laughter. Drunken yells, jeering and roars of laughter ripped through the screams, and then came a flash of light brought the something into view.

It was a crowd of wizards that made the hairs stand on the back of Phoenix's neck, their wands directed upwards into the sky, seemingly marching across the field. Phoenix saw, with a jolt, that their heads heavily hooded and their faces were masked. Phoenix stared, in horror, as she saw that their wands were in fact directed at four figures high in the air that were being contorted into shapes that were not possible if they were not being controlled by the hooded figures. Two of the figures, Phoenix realised, were very small.

"Oh my-" said Phoenix, stepping backwards in utter fear.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Mr. Weasley bellowed at them, rolling up his sleeves. "You lot—get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and get you when this has been sorted out!"

"Phoenix, C'mon! "George grabbed Phoenix's hand and pulled her towards the woods, following the others. As they reached the trees, she looked back at the scene. The crowd was larger; Ministry wizards were desperately trying to reach the hooded figures.

The paths that had been lighted earlier was now gone. Phoenix gripped onto George's large hand tigther with her smaller ones as she heard children crying, anxious yells that made her heart feel as though it was going to explode. She was being pushed by dark figures as they too tried to escape the scene.

"Where do we go?" voiced Phoenix, noticing that her voice was breaking in fear.

"No idea," said Fred, "just stay close."

"But where's Harry, Ron and Hermione?" Ginny asked, looking back. Phoenix mimicked her and realised that they were nowhere to be seen through the sea of people. Fred swore loudly.

"Fred, just keep going, they'll be fine as long as they stick together," George confided, "we have to keep moving." Phoenix noticed that George glanced at her when he said this.

So they did. They moved through the throng of people towards, who knows where. More and more people were pushing them in panic, causing Ginny and Phoenix to topple over one or more times due to their small sizes.

"You two, stop!" Fred yelled over yells from the people surrounding them. Phoenix and George obliged and together, with Fred and Ginny, they cut into the trees, away from the crowd.

"What on earth is going on out there?" said George as they all sat against tree trunks, Phoenix in her usual position with her head against George's shoulder and his arm around her.

"I have no idea," said Fred, handing Ginny his jacket as she shivered, "but- did you see who was in the air?"

"No? Who?" Ginny asked.

"It was Mr. Robert's family," said George, "it must be their idea of fun. You know-," George cast a weary look at Phoenix, "-taking the mick out of Muggles,"

"That's sick," Phoenix said in a small voice, "I bet you anything that Lucius was in there. Is that why you were so keen to keep us going because you were worried that they would get me?"

"Well-" began George.

"Nix, you know what they're like," said Fred, looking weary, "anyone who even has a trace of Muggle blood in their family, they see them as well-"

"Yeah, yeah I know," snapped Phoenix, "but whatever. I'm a better witch than most purebloods so they can kiss my-"

"You know," sneered a voice somewhere behind them, "saying things like that won't change that you are a Mudblood."

Fred and George immediately got to their feet, their wands directed straight at Draco's smug looking face.

"Shove off Malfoy," snarled Fred.

"Careful _Weasley_, you don't want to attract attention. They're after Muggles."

"I'm a witch Malfoy," snapped Phoenix, who was now on her feet, "unless you would like me to demonstrate my Mutatio Skullus hex on you."

Draco's eyes narrowed slightly, "have it your way then, if you think that they can't spot a Mudblood, then just stay here."

Fred and George both moved as though they were about to pounce on Draco, but both Ginny and Phoenix grabbed their arms, "shouldn't you be with your dear family?" snapped Phoenix as she pushed George backwards to stand in front of him and held his arms behind her back.

"Where's your family?" drawled Draco, completely ignoring Phoenix's questions, "I bet your father, Weasleys, is helping the Muggles down,"

"Yeah, unlike your father who is probably out there wearing a mask," retorted Phoenix.

Draco smirked, "well, I suppose I will see you out there with the other Muggles then." He snarled.

"Yeah," said Phoenix, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "see you git," she muttered as Draco strutted away from them. Fred, George and Ginny glared after him. Phoenix knew what they were thinking. They were angry that Draco even had the nerve to call Phoenix a Mudblood. It was an extremely offensive term for a person who is Muggle born.

"He acts like he's royalty," said Fred darkly.

"That's only because in his eyes he is," said Phoenix, "we better go and find-"

But at that precise moment something ignited high in the sky, illuminating the clearing in which they were situated. It was a gigantic emerald skull, looking as though it was made of stars, a serpent extending out of its mouth. It was rising higher and higher, green smoke misting it, edged into the black sky. Screams pierced the night and Phoenix clasped her hand to her mouth as she realised what it was.

"That's not-" began Fred.

"-The Dark Mark," finished Phoenix, her shaking hand grasping Ginny's.

"You don't think that somebody-" George gulped as he and Fred followed Phoenix and Ginny hurrying through the trees towards the now clear path.

"No they can't have-" said Ginny in a small voice.

"Thank god I found you guys!"

"Charlie!" Ginny ran towards the second eldest Weasley son and he engulfed her into a brotherly hug.

Beside Charlie, stood Edmund, Phoenix ran to him and he instantly pulled her into a big hug.

"Is everyone alright?" George asked immediately.

"Yeah," Charlie said and Phoenix sighed in relief, "Bill and Percy are back at the tent and Will and Dad's still with some more people from the Ministry to the scene where the Dark Mark was conjured, but everyone's okay. Percy's got a bloody nose, Charlie's arm is bleeding quite badly and I ripped my shirt, but that's it really."

"Oh thank Merlin," said Fred.

"Where's Ron, Harry, and Hermione?" asked Ed, a look mixed with worry and confusion on his face.

"We got split up," said Fred, "people were pushing and pushing, we couldn't stop to look for them,"

"Don't worry, Dad will find them," said Charlie, "lets just get you lot back to the tent."

Phoenix stared back up at the mark that was edged into the sky and as if he could read her mind, George put an assuring arm around her waist, "hey Charlie you think that we can get out of here?"

"Yeah, lets go."

Charlie and Ed led the way, his and the others wands were ignited as they walked through the trees, twigs breaking underneath their feet. As they walked Phoenix felt on edge, like the twigs that were breaking were not caused by them and she frequently looked back into the trees.

"Why do you keep looking back?" Fred asked when he and George noticed that Phoenix was doing so.

"Huh?"

"You kept looking back," said George.

"I just feel like someone's watching us," said Phoenix, "but I'm just paranoid."

Fred and George looked at her inquisitively, then at each other. George shrugged at his brother and looked back into the dark trees as Phoenix had done.

Fred looked back up at The Dark Mark, his face looking slightly pale, "Charlie? You don't think that someone was-," Fred gulped, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Charlie shared a look with Ed before he looked across at Fred, "It's likely that the person who conjured it is a Death Eater or was, because only Death Eaters knew exactly how to conjure it-"

"But weren't the Death Eaters the ones who were causing all the chaos," said Phoenix, "they didn't-"

"No they didn't" said Charlie, "they all Disapparated as soon as they saw it. The ones you saw tonight were the last of them and after how much a lot of the wizards had to drink; they took the opportunity to evoke fear."

Ginny frowned, confused "Why did they Disapparate?"

"Because seeing the mark most likely scared them," Ed informed her carefully, "most of the remaining Death Eaters fled when You-Know-Who fell all those years ago. They denied that they ever were Death Eaters and most of them said they were under the Imperious Curse and went back to their normal, everyday lives. They would be more terrified than any of us if he returned, I mean, You-Know-Who wouldn't exactly be pleased with them."

They reminded in silence after that, trudging over the now very muddy path towards the calamity of the campsite. Luckily the two tents that they were staying in were in tack, the girl's tent did have a slightly singed cover, but overwise it was in perfect condition.

"You found them!" A pompous, slightly muffled voice sounded as soon as they entered the tent. Percy was holding a stained towel to his nose which was bleeding and Bill was nursing a badly cut arm with a spare bedsheet.

"They were split up from Ron and that, but they'll turn up eventually," said Charlie as he and Ed sat down beside Bill at the kitchen table.

It was barely five minutes later that Harry, Ron and Hermione appeared alongside Mr. Weasley and Will, who once he saw his step-sister was okay, hugged her as Ed had done and joined his brother and the Weasley's at the table.

"Did you manage to get them, Dad?" Bill asked as soon as Mr. Weasley came in, "the person who conjured the Mark?"

"No," Mr. Weasley said flatly, "We found Mr. Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but as to who conjured it, we are none the wiser."

"What?" Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ed all said together, their eyes wide in surprise.

Phoenix shared a bewildered look with Fred and George.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred, in disbelief.

"Mr. Crouch's elf?" babbled Percy, his mouth moving soundlessly but no words came out, apparently too lost for words.

But Phoenix wasn't listening to their conversation anymore. She shuddered, only now fully coming to terms with the series of events that had occurred in the hours previous. It felt like a lifetime ago that she and the Weasley party where cheering Ireland at the Quidditch World Cup Final. She couldn't help but feel slightly unhinged by what had happened. It wasn't every day that The Dark Mark appeared in the sky. It had to be over thirteen years ago that it had last appeared. And at an event like this with so many witches and wizards, there couldn't be a more perfect opportunity to evoke such fear in the wizarding world. What if, she thought, Lord Voldemort was returning to power?

"Phoenix, are you okay?" George's voice startled Phoenix so much that she jumped and almost toppled over the small coffee table.

"Y-yeah," Phoenix stuttered quickly, feeling like one of their previous Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, who, quite ironically, turned out to have Lord Voldemort sticking out the back of his head. She shuffled over to the sofa and sat down, running her fingers through her now indigo coloured hair.

George mimicked her actions, sitting himself down beside her, "come on Pixy, it's fine."

"Is it?" Phoenix said in a hushed voice, not wanting to be overheard, "When was the last time you saw The Dark Mark in the sky? It was when he was in power. Doesn't that," Phoenix paused for a moment before saying, "scare you?"

George looked at her seriously, a look that was rare in the case of both of the Weasley twins, "Of course it does," he admitted, "but you're not going to worry about it because we're going to be back in Hogwarts soon."

"And how does that help the situation?" Phoenix frowned.

"Honestly," George heaved a deep sigh, "who is the man that You-Know-Who fears the most?" George paused for a moment, before saying, "Dumbledore! Hogwarts is the safest place in the wizarding world when we have Dumbledore."

"I guess you're right," said Phoenix quietly.

"I always am," George said cheerfully, putting an arm around Phoenix's shoulder and squeezing her into his chest, "and I always will be Pixy."

"Look, can someone just explain what that skull thing was?" Ron suddenly said loudly, taking Phoenix and George's attention to the other conversation around the kitchen table. "It wasn't hurting anyone… Why's it such a big deal?"

"I told you, Ron, it's You-Know-Who's symbol," said Hermione, very impatiently in her recognisable a matter of fact tone, "I read about it in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."

"And it hasn't been seen for thirteen years," said Mr. Weasley quietly, looking at each of his children and then at Phoenix and Harry, "People panicked as soon as they saw it… it just reminded people of when saw it Ron, it was almost like You-Know-Who was back again."

Phoenix shuffled slightly uncomfortably in her seat on the sofa and began to play with her fingers, still listening intently as Fred too sat down beside them.

"I don't get it," said Ron, a frown evident upon his face, "I mean… it's still only a shape in the sky if you think about it…"

"Ron," Mr. Weasley said softly, "You-Know-Who and his followers sent the Dark Mark into the air whenever they killed," said Mr. Weasley, casting a weary look over at Phoenix that she did not see. "The terror it inspired… you couldn't even imagine. Just picture coming home and finding the Dark Mark hovering over your house, and knowing what you're about to find inside…" Mr. Weasley shuddered slightly, "Everyone's worst fear… the very worst…"

A loud silence followed this. It was broken when Bill removed the bedsheet to check on his cut, which had now stopped bleeding, "Well, whoever conjured it didn't help us at all. It scared the Death Eaters right away the moment that they saw it. They all Disapparated before we had even got near enough to unmask any of them. We managed to get to Mr. Robert's family before they hit the ground, on the bright side. They're having their memories modified right now for good measure."

"Death Eaters?" said Harry, "What are Death Eaters?" Phoenix was always surprised how little Harry knew about Voldemort's rise to power all those years ago.

"It's what You-Know-Who's followers or so-called supporters called themselves," said Ed, "I think we saw what's left of them tonight—the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban, anyhow."

"We can't prove it was them, Edmund," said Mr. Weasley. "Though it probably was," he added considerately.

"Yeah, I bet you anything it was!" added Ron, his face shining, "Dad cause what, we ran into Draco Malfoy in the woods, and he as good as told us his dad was one of those nutters in masks! And we all know the Malfoys were right in with You-Know-Who!"

"We saw him too," Phoenix said suddenly.

"Yeah!" added Fred. "He did get really defensive when Phoenix asked where his family were-"

"But what were Voldemort's supporters—" Harry began. Everybody flinched; Phoenix included—like the majority of the wizarding world feared Voldemort so much that they even feared saying his name. "Sorry," said Harry quickly. "What were You-Know-Who's supporters up to, levitating Muggles? I mean, what was the point in it?"

"The point?" said Mr. Weasley with a slight laugh, "Harry, that's their idea of fun. It's sick and very twisted, I know. But half the Muggle killings back while You-Know-Who was in power were done for pure fun." Mr. Weasley paused for a moment, looking weary once again, before continuing, "I suppose they had a few drinks tonight and couldn't resist reminding us all that lots of them are still at large. A nice little reunion for them," he finished.

"But if they were the Death Eaters, why did they Disapparate when they saw the Dark Mark?" Ron asked, looking more and more confused. "They'd have been pleased to see it, wouldn't they?"

"Think about it, Ron," said Bill, "If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power all those years ago. They all told all sorts of lies about him forcing them to kill and torture people. They would be terrified if he regained power. They denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, and went back to their daily lives… I don't reckon he'd be over pleased with them, do you?"

Hermione nodded, taking in all the information and progressing it. Phoenix could almost hear her brain working furiously, "So… whoever conjured the Dark Mark…" said Hermione slowly. "were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?"

"It had to be a Death Eater," said Phoenix suddenly. "They were the only ones who knew how to conjure it."

"Yes," Mr. Weasley said thoughtfully. "I would be very surprised if the person who did conjure hadn't been a Death Eater even if they're not now…"

Will looked at his wristwatch and then back up at Phoenix, "we best be off. Tomorrow will be a long day at work for the both of us," he said, casting a look over at his brother.

"Yes," said Mr. Weasley, "you lot should be getting to bed too. It's extremely late and if your mother hears about what has happened she'll be worried sick."


	7. Don't Wish

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: Thank you for all the lovely reviews and support on this story so far, it means a lot. I hope you enjoy this chapter and next chapter Phoenix and the twins will be on their way to Hogwarts and some of my favourite characters (Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson) will be entering the story. Review if you want the next chapter which will be posted over the following week!**

* * *

"_So chin up and  
We'll drown a little slower."_

* * *

With only a few hours' sleep, Phoenix, Ginny, and Hermione packed their bags and, with very bleary eyes, got dressed and made their way outside the tent so that Mr. Weasley could take down the tents by magic.

"You look dashing Phoenix," Fred greeted.

Phoenix looked tiredly at Fred, her eyes still half closed and her lavender coloured hair was as bushy as Hermione's, "I've only had about 5 hours sleep in the past 48 hours," she complained.

"Aw," cooed George, "Is ickle Pixy tired?"

Phoenix frowned, "Of course I am," she said. "I just want to sleeeeep," she pouted her lips slightly before leaning her head against George's shoulder.

"Ickle Phoenix is tired." Said Fred.

They left the campsite only a few minutes after. They passed Mr. Roberts at the door of his cottage. He had a slightly stunned look on his face as he waved the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Phoenix off with an airy, "Merry Christmas."

"Bless him," said Phoenix as they all followed Mr. Weasley to the spot where the Portkeys lay. It was crowded by witches and wizards, despite it barely being dust. It was clear that they were all eager to get away from the campsite as soon as they could. After Mr. Weasley had a hurried conversation with Basil they joined the queue and were able to take an old and batty looking rubber tire back to Stoatshead Hill before the sun had even risen.

They walked through Ottery St. Catchpole and then up the lane towards the Burrow as the sun had risen higher. Phoenix was taking even littler steps than usual, looking as though she was going to fall asleep at any given moment, her stomach growling for food. As they neared the gate and the Burrow was in clear view, a cry cut into their loud silence.

"Oh thank goodness, thank goodness!"

Mrs. Weasley ran with surprising speed towards them in her pink fluffy slippers, her eyes wide and her face extremely pale, a copy of the Daily Prophet in her hand.

"Arthur - I've been so worried - so worried-"

Mrs. Weasley's arms instantly wrapped around Mr. Weasley's neck and the Daily Prophet fell out of her hand and onto the ground. Phoenix could immediately see the headline, SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP.

"You're all right," Mrs. Weasley whispered, her bloodshot eyes darting from each of her children, Hermione, Harry and then Phoenix, "you're alive…Oh boys!"

Mrs. Weasley flung herself at Fred and George, pulling them both into a very tight hug, almost knocking Phoenix off her feet. She tried not to laugh as they struggled, red faced, against their mother.

"Ouch! Mum," said Fred, clearly embarrassed, "you're strangling us!"

Mrs. Weasley had begun to sob into their shoulders, "I shouted at you before you left!" Mrs. Weasley cried, "It's all I've been thinking about since I got the paper! What if something bad had happened and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn't get enough OW.L.s? Oh Fred…George…"

Phoenix caught George's eye over Mrs. Weasley's shoulder and she smiled at his embarrassment.

"Come on, now, Molly," Mr. Weasley said soothingly, managing to pull Mrs. Weasley off the twins, "We're all perfectly okay." Mr. Weasley then led his wife towards the house as the twins both turned to a smirking Phoenix.

"Come on them," said Fred.

"Let it out," finished George.

"What?" Phoenix snorted, trying her very best not to laugh, "is ickle Freddie and Georgie all embarrassed," she said in the same voice that someone would adopt talking to a very young infant.

"There it is," said Fred, still looking very red.

"Sorry Freddie," said Phoenix, in the same babyish voice.

"You're really enjoying this aren't you?" George asked as they followed the others back to the Burrow.

"Oh Georgie, you have no idea how much I enjoy annoying you," said Phoenix.

Everybody managed to crowd into the tiny kitchen, Phoenix was sitting upon one of the counters with Fred and George leaning against it beside her. Hermione had made Mrs. Weasley a cup of strong tea, which Mr. Weasley had sneaked a shot of Ogdens Old Firewhiskey in it.

Bill handed his father the dusty looking newspaper that Mrs. Weasley had dropped. Mr. Weasley unfolded it and began to read, Percy was peering over his shoulder.

"I knew it," sighed Mr. Weasley, "Ministry blunders… culprits not apprehended…lax security….Dark wizards running unchecked... national disgrace…Who wrote this? Ah…of course…Rita Skeeter."

"That woman's got it in for the Ministry of Magic!" Percy burst suddenly, "Last week she was saying we're wasting our time quibbling about cauldron thickness, when we should be stamping out vampires! As if it wasn't specifically stated in paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans -"

"Do us a favour, Perce, and shut up," said Bill.

"I'm mentioned," said Mr. Weasley, his eyes wide as he started at the paper.

"Where?" Mrs. Weasley asked, almost chocking on her cup of tea and Firewhiskey, "If I'd seen that, I'd have known you were alive before you got back!"

"Not by name, listen to this," Mr. Weasley said, shaking the paper slightly before reading, "'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumours that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen.' Oh really," Mr. Weasley spluttered angrily, frowning at the paper, "Nobody was hurt. What was I supposed to say? Rumours that several bodies were removed from the woods…well, there certainly will be rumours now she's printed that." He sighed, shaking his head. "Molly, I'm going to have to go into the office; this is going to take some smoothing over."

"I'll come with you, Father," said Percy pompously. Phoenix, Fred and George all rolled their eyes, "Mr. Crouch will need all hands on deck. And I can give him my cauldron report in person."

"He just wants to see Mr. Crouch," whispered Fred. Both Phoenix and George snorted.

"Arthur, you're supposed to be on holiday!" Mrs. Weasley said, looking upset, "this hasn't got anything to do with your office; surely they can handle this without you?"

"I've got to go, Molly," Mr. Weasley said solemnly, "I have appeared to make things worse. I'll just change into my robes and I'll be off…"

Mr. Weasley kissed his wife and Ginny's head before he left the kitchen and up the rickety staircase.

"Do you three want to play some Quidditch?" Charlie asked Fred, George and Phoenix as they all settled down in the comfy sitting room.

"Yeah!" The twins said at the same time.

"I'm too tired to play," said Phoenix, "I'm going to get some sleep."

"Aw is ickle Phoenix tired?" George spoke in the same voice babyish voice that Phoenix had adopted earlier.

Phoenix rolled her eyes and got to her feet, flicking both the twins on the ears, "Don't even start," she said.

* * *

Phoenix slept for hours. She awoke several times because Ginny and Mrs. Weasley were tiptoeing in and out every now and then. She only fully woke when Fred and George came storming in and had shaken her awake.

"What?" she grumbled, rubbing her eyes, "did ickle Freddie and George lose?"

"No." Fred said gruffly.

"Just come up to our room," said George, "quickly." Phoenix obliged and followed the twins up into their seemingly floorless room due to the mess.

"What's wrong?" Phoenix asked, taking a seat on George's bed beside him, Fred sat herself down on his bed opposite them.

Fred and George shared a weary look before Fred said, "The gold that Bagman gave us for winning the bet-,"

"-it's gone." Finished George.

"Gone?" Phoenix said, horrified.

"Yeah," George said, looking pitiful.

"But how? We haven't been robbed have we?"

"Remember at the match?" said Fred.

"What the Irish mascots had-," said George.

"It wasn't leprechaun gold was it?" said Phoenix, . The twins nodded and Phoenix exploded into hushed shouts, "I told you it was a bad idea! Betting was a huge mistake, you can't trust-"

"Don't worry Phoenix," said George, putting an arm round her to calm her down before she really got mad. "We're going to write to him, it was probably a mistake."

"But-,"

"Nix," Fred soothed, "its fine. We can get the money back one way or another. We earned it and we can earn it again."

"Yes but-,"

"Phoenix," George said, more sternly than usual, "just trust us for once yeah?"

Phoenix sighed, defeated. "Okay – but – what were the exact plans for all the money?" she asked cautiously.

"Well," began Fred, "we were going to get you a really nice Christmas present."

Phoenix snorted, "I'm not an idiot Fred."

"We were planning to start our joke shop from the money," continued George.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" asked Phoenix before she could stop herself. Fred and George both nodded.

"Yes-" said Fred. "But it's fine. We can get the money back easily with our order service and the plans we have when we get back to Hogwarts."

"Right," said Phoenix sceptically, "and what exactly do you have planned for when we get back from Hogwarts?"

At that moment, two owls flew in through the open window. One launched itself into George's chest. The other landed quite gracefully on Fred's knee and hooted serenely.

"Errol has your reply," said George, laughing as he untied the cords around Errol's legs and read Phoenix's reply from all those days ago, "And you are a lazy git Pixy."

"Errol isn't exactly first class mail," said Fred.

"Silvano most probably found him unconscious in the tree again," said George, "probably wanted to make sure Errol got back here in one piece."

Phoenix was not listening to their conversation however. Her mind flashed briefly back to image of the Dark Mark. It's image had seemed to edge itself into her mind, the way it glittered ghostly green and the eerie way in which the serpent slide out of its mouth as though it were a tongue, and she couldn't help but feel a deep sense of foreboding when she thought of the mark. She thought, regrettably, that maybe it was a sign. No matter how much she tried to shake it off, she couldn't help but feel that is way no a coincidence this was the first time that the Dark Mark had been seen in over thirteen years. Even the thought of Lord Voldemort being in power again made her skin crawl. But she couldn't shrug off the feeling that something dark and dangerous was approaching.

* * *

Over the following week at the Burrow, it became increasingly difficult to even catch a glimpse of Mr. Weasley or Percy as both left the house every morning before anybody else had awoken, and only returned late after dinner every night.

Phoenix was sitting at the dinner table with Hermione, Harry, and the rest of the Weasleys, minus Mr. Weasley. Percy was talking vigorously about people sending Howlers complaining about security at the World Cup and wanting compensation for ruined items. Phoenix only listened briefly, before returning to her potato and leek soup and only looking up to glance at the grandfather clock in the corner. It was completely useless if you wanted to know the time, but if you wanted to know welfare of each of the Weasley family members, it kept you well informed.

It had nine golden hands, each of them engraved with each of the family's names. Unlike a normal clock, it didn't have numbers around the face, but descriptions of each family member were. There was 'Home', 'school' and 'work', there was also 'traveling', 'lost, 'hospital', 'prison', (which was where Phoenix always could imagine both Fred and George golden hands will one day be pointing), and where in the number twelve would be on a normal clock, instead it read, 'mortal peril.'

Eight of these hands were all pointing at 'home', but Mr. Weasley's was pointing to 'work'.

It had begun to rain once everyone had finished their dinner and Mrs. Weasley had cleared the table with a flick of her wand. Everybody was situated in the living room. Phoenix was on the floor with her back propped against George's legs, reading The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts that Cecilia had bought for her in Diagon Alley and sent her earlier that day along with her other school supplies. Fred and George were sat beside her, their heads bent over a piece of parchment and talking in hushed whispers about the Ludo Bagman situation so that their mother could not hear, but of course Mrs. Weasley couldn't help but be suspicious of her sons.

"What are you two up to?" Mrs. Weasley asked sharply.

"Homework," said Fred airily. That boy could lie through his teeth, Phoenix thought.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're still on holiday," said Mrs. Weasley and Phoenix couldn't help but agree with her, even if Phoenix herself was already immersed in one of her school books, but the Weasley twins had never even looked at a book during their summers and never will because they always managed to get Phoenix to their summer holiday homework for them.

"We've left it a bit late," George coughed.

"You're not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you?" Mrs. Weasley questioned, "You wouldn't be thinking of restarting Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, by any chance?"

"Now, Mum," Fred began, placing his quill down onto the table in front of him and looking up at his mother incredulously, "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow, and George and I died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?"

Phoenix laughed along with everyone else. Even Mrs. Weasley had laughed.

"Nice save Fred," Phoenix whispered just as Mrs. Weasley shot up out of her seat.

"Your father is coming back!" She said happily and Phoenix looked up at the clock to see that Mr. Weasley's hand had spun from 'work' to 'travelling' and a few moments later had landed back to 'home'.

"What exactly are you writing to Bagman then?" Phoenix asked, placing her book down and turning to the twins as Mr. Weasley walked in with his dinner on a tray, looking completely exhausted.

George leaned down in his seat so he could whisper in Phoenix's ear, "We're writing to him and telling him he made us a mistake giving us leprechaun, and then maybe he might cough up and give us the money back."

"So you think that he did this purpose?" Phoenix asked.

"Well yeah. Don't you?" Fred said. Phoenix nodded and Fred continued, "He might give us the money back if he realises that he has messed up or realises that he conned us."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then we'll keep writing." Said George, "we're smart enough to know we're being messed around."

Their conversation was silenced when Hermione and Percy began to argue about Mr. Crouch and his house elf, Winky and Mrs. Weasley had broken the argument by telling everyone to go upstairs and pack their trunks, ready for the train tomorrow, but Phoenix, who had already packed earlier in the day, followed Fred and George to their room so that they could pack and discuss about their letter to Bagman.

"I don't think we should send Errol," George was saying as he packed his trunk alongside Fred, while Phoenix lay down on Fred's bed, twirling her aqua coloured hair.

"We should probably wait until we get to Hogwarts– wait– what on earth are these?" Phoenix looked up, just in time to see Fred holding up deep purple dress robes.

"I've got some too." George said, holding up his, which were a might night blue.

"Why on earth have you got those?" Phoenix spluttered, she couldn't even imagine either of the twins ever willingly wearing dress robes.

There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Weasley entered, carrying Fred and George's Hogwarts robes.

"Hello Phoenix," she said kindly, "Now pack these carefully so that they don't crease."

"Mum, why have we got dress robes?" George asked.

"It says on your school list that you're supposed to have dress robes this year… robes for formal occasions," explained Mrs. Weasley.

"What formal occasion?" said Fred, but Mrs. Weasley didn't answer, instead she turned to Phoenix.

"Cecilia told me that she has your dress and will send it to you sometime when you get back to Hogwarts–"

"Wait!" said Fred, looking positively gleeful.

"Phoenix has to wear–" continued George.

"A dress?" They chorused.

"Yes," Mrs. Weasley beamed and Fred and George began to laugh silently while Phoenix glared over at the pair of them. "Boys, try to be more mature," Mrs. Weasley said, "Phoenix will look lovely in her dress."

"Thank you Molly," Phoenix smiled at her gratefully as the twins continued to snigger childishly behind Mrs. Weasley's back.

Mrs. Weasley left shortly after ensuring that both of the twins had packed their trunks correctly. When she did, Fred and George immediately began to discuss how silly Phoenix would look in her dress.

"Why do you two find it so amusing that I'm going to be wearing a dress?" said Phoenix, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Because–" spluttered George.

"–you are the last person I could imagine in a dress, but I'm sure you'll look lovely," George added quickly as Phoenix raised her eyebrows.

"I've worn a dress before; they're not exactly alien to me," she said, "I was a bridesmaid at Cecilia and my father's wedding, haven't you seen any pictures?"

"Well yeah," said Fred, "but you were about ten and we didn't know you until a year after that."

"And that makes a difference because?"

"Because you're a completely different person now!" exclaimed George.

Phoenix laughed, "Yeah you two have corrupted me."


	8. The Journey There

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: Thank you to ToothFairyFlyer, weasleys-darling, KateA001, StandardOfGrace and all the guests that have given me lovely reviews for Vulnerability so far, it means a lot to me. Well, I've finished school for 10 weeks now (so more updates). I am working on another story that I will have loads of time to complete (it's another Fred and George/OC story) and I'm going to be posting it soon so if you're interested tell me in your review! Please enjoy this chapter and have a lovely day.  
**

* * *

"_Why don't you speak it out loud,  
Instead of living in your head."_

* * *

The atmosphere in the Burrow the next morning was as dull and gloomy as the weather outside. Rain hammered against the window and the wind howled loudly as Phoenix got dressed in jeans and a jumper, they would all change into their school robes on the Hogwarts Express.

As always, Mrs. Weasley made a large and scrumptious full English breakfast, complete with bacon, sausages, eggs, porridge, and toast. Just as Phoenix sat down at the table in her usual seat between Fred and George, Mr. Weasley came rushing in the kitchen, saying rushed good-byes to his children as he dragged a comb through his hair.

"I'd better hurry – you lot have a good term," said Mr. Weasley "and try to keep the twins in line Phoenix,"

"I will try, Mr. Weasley, as I always do," said Phoenix.

"Molly, are you going to be all right taking the kids to King's Cross?" Mr. Weasley asked as he fastened his travelling cloak over his shoulders, preparing to Disapparate.

"Of course I will," she said as Mr. Weasley pecked her cheek. "You just look after Mad-Eye, we'll be fine."

With a loud _CRACK_, Mr. Weasley Disapparated, just as Bill and Charlie entered the kitchen.

"What was the about Mad-Eye?" Bill asked as Mrs. Weasley handed him a plate.

"He says that someone apparently tried to break into his house last night," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George, "Isn't he that nutter -"

"Your father happens to think very highly of Mad-Eye Moody," Mrs. Weasley eyed George with a stern look.

"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred in an undertone as Mrs. Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather. . ."

"Moody is a good friend of Will's," said Phoenix, "When he was still an Auror of course."

"What's an Auror?" asked Harry. Harry, who had grown up with muggles had very little knowledge about what most witches and wizards knew like the back of their hands.

"A dark wizard catcher," said Hermione informality.

"Moody was a great wizard in his time," said Bill thoughtfully.

"Half the cells in Azkaban are full because of him," said Phoenix, "he made a lot more enemies however, mostly the families of people that he caught. Will says he is really paranoid at his age and doesn't really trust anyone. Says that he sees Dark wizards everywhere."

"He's an old friend of Dumbledore's, isn't he?" said Charlie.

"Dumbledore's not what you'd call normal, though, is he?" said Fred, "I mean, I know he's a genius and everything…" Phoenix had to agree. Dumbledore was definitely a character.

Bill and Charlie decided that they would come along to King's Cross station to see everybody off, but most unfortunately, Percy couldn't as he said that he really needed to get to work.

"Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me." He said, causing Fred and George to snigger.

"Yeah, you know what, Percy? I reckon he'll know your name soon."

* * *

Mrs. Weasley had got Muggle taxis to take them to Kings Cross, Mrs. Weasley seemed to be unaware that Muggle taxi drivers aren't used to transporting owls, especially Ron's overexcited owl, Pigwidgeon. Neither did it help when a number of Fred's Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks exploded unexpectedly from his trunk and almost set Phoenix's hair on fire.

The journey there was extremely uncomfortable. Phoenix was crammed into the back between the twins and Silvano kept hooting indignitedly at the discomfort. So they were glad when the taxis parked in front of the station.

They got onto platform nine and three-quarters within a matter of minutes, after walking through the sold barrier between platforms nine and ten. Phoenix went through with Fred and George; they talked, seemingly casually, as they slip through the barrier with ease. They all now stood beside the magnificent scarlet steam engine, the Hogwarts Express. Phoenix, Fred and George, put their trunks and Silvano's cage in a free compartment before they returned to the platform to say goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie.

"I may be seeing you all sooner than you think," said Charlie as he hugged Ginny.

"Why?" Fred said curiously.

"You'll see," said Charlie, winking at Fred, "just don't tell Percy I mentioned it… it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all." Phoenix and Ginny giggled at Charlie's impressive impression of Percy's most pompous voice.

"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill airily, grinning as he could tell that he was making the twins impatient.

"Why?" said George, clearly becoming annoyed at his elder brothers.

"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, winking once again "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it."

"A bit of what?" said Ron, staring from Bill to Charlie and back.

The whistle suddenly sounded and Mrs. Weasley hugged each of her children, the Harry, then Hermione, and then Phoenix before ushering them onto the train.

"Thanks for letting me stay again Mrs. Weasley," said Phoenix, leaning out of the window on-board the train so she could talk.

"Yeah, thanks for everything, Mrs. Weasley," added Harry.

"Oh it was my pleasure, dears," said Mrs. Weasley, smiling widely. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but…with what's on going I suspect that you will be staying…"

"What d'you three know that we don't?" said Ron desperately as he too hung out of the window of the train.

"You'll find out this evening, I expect," said Mrs. Weasley, "it's going to be very exciting - mind you, I'm very glad they've changed the rules -"

"What rules?" said Harry, Ron, Phoenix Fred, and George together. They were all now leaning out of the window, almost crushing Phoenix in the process.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you…Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?"

"I'll make sure of it Mrs. Weasley!" Phoenix said loudly as the train began to move.

The pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move and Phoenix moved out of the way so that she could have some room to move.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed irritably at his mother, "What rules are they changing?" But the train rounded a corner and Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione all moved out of the way of the window.

Phoenix, Fred, and George all said goodbye to the others and moved down the train and sat down in their compartment. Phoenix sat in her usual seat beside the window, beside George and opposite Fred.

"What do you think going on a Hogwarts then?" said George almost immediately.

"I have no idea," said Fred, frowning, "it sounds like some sort of event."

"And it sounds as though it's taking place throughout the year," said Phoenix thoughtfully, "seeing as though Mrs. Weasley said something's happening around Christmas."

"Could be some sort of special Quidditch Cup," said George, "to go along with the year of the World Cup maybe."

"Whatever it is, I hope that it doesn't get in the way of our lessons," said Phoenix as Fred and George rolled their eyes, "What?"

"Honestly Phoenix," said Fred exasperatedly.

"It is the beginning of our N.E.W.T.s, " she said defensively as the door to their compartment slid open to reveal Lee Jordan, one of their closest friends, came in, carrying his trunk. Lee was a dark skinned boy with black hair and dreadlocks and also a self-proclaimed ladies' man. Lee Jordan fancied almost every girl in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, not really any Slytherins, though he did once say that Laurentia Ackland, a seventh year Slytherin, had a perfect backside, which then proceeded him being in the Hospital Wing for several days due to the fact that he had grown antlers.

He just simply loved woman. All shapes and sizes and that was why Phoenix thought that Lee was simply a delightful character. She recalled on one of their very first visits to the village of Hogsmeade, Lee had shouted loudly about how a witch had her breasts on full display over her corset and rated them in a loud voice out of ten. Lee was a most charming and… plausible person.

"Alright," he greeted the compartment, placing his trunk in the overhead compartment and then sat down beside Fred and put his feet up on Phoenix's lap, who quickly brushed his feet off with a smile. "You were right Fred, she's turned feisty."

Phoenix scoffed, "I'm not feisty." She pouted, looking from George and then at Fred, "when have I ever been feisty?"

"Yeah Fred, Phoenix is like the sweetest person in world," said George.

"Of course George would say that," Fred whispered audibly to Lee. George shot his brother a warning look, which Phoenix missed. "I was joking Nix, you are too sweet for your own good, but I would hate to be on the receiving end of one of your jinxes."

"How were your summers?" Lee asked.

"It was good," said Fred, "played Quidditch mostly, we went to the World Cup. We were in the Top Box and we could see it all up close."

"I was on holiday then, admiring the women, you know," he said dreamily and Phoenix snorted at the glazed expression on his face, "my dad went to the World Cup though," he continued, "he told us what happened, it sounded horrific."

"It was," said Phoenix, "the Death Eaters were just levitating some Muggles in the air for fun. It was disgusting." She shuddered slightly, her hair turning a lilac colour. "But other than that, mine was ok," she continued, "My cousin taught me how to skateboard– " All three of the boys looked at Phoenix confused, so she added, "You like ride on a board, it's a Muggle thing, but anyway my step-cousin Tonks taught me some cool things too."

"Like what?" said Fred.

"Yeah Pixy, you didn't tell us that," said George.

"Well I didn't want to make you too jealous of what I can do," said Phoenix. It was true Phoenix's step-cousin, Nymphadora Tonks who went by the nickname Tonks, had been round Lavender Cottage along with her step-aunt, Andromeda, and step-uncle, Ted. Tonks was a few years older than Phoenix and was more used to her Metamorphmagus gift than Phoenix was.

"What can you do then?" Lee asked.

"It's really embarrassing," said Phoenix, her hair turning a deep red, "but whatever." Phoenix scrunched her face and her eyes, looking immensely concentrated as she shook her head as her nose and mouth resembled a duck's nose and mouth. The twins and Lee immediately burst into laughter and began rolling about in their seats. Phoenix blushed as her nose and mouth returned to its usual shape, she too joined in the laughter.

"That's not embarrassing!" George said through his laughter. "It's hilarious! I would sell my limbs to do that!"

Fred stopped laughing and looked at Phoenix thoughtfully, "That could be useful."

"What do you mean?" Phoenix questioned, confused, still laughing.

Fred looked at Phoenix exasperatedly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "When we sneak out at night. You could just make yourself look like Malfoy or something to get him into trouble."

"Yeah," Phoenix laughed, "it will be even funnier when the teachers see Draco Malfoy in girls' clothes."

The rain splattered down on the windows even heavier as the Hogwarts Express moved farther north. The lanterns along the train were lit by midday as the sky outside was so dark and the windows were steamy. Phoenix traced several drawings of flowers and smiley faces on the window before Fred and Lee rubbed them off, crackling madly.

"You guys are so mean!" She exclaimed as they rubbed off her drawing of a tree. She slumped back in her seat and crossed her arms childishly and leaned into George's shoulder, glaring at Fred and Lee. George put his arm around her and both Fred and Lee wiggled their eyebrows at George, who glared at the pair of them.

At lunch time, the lunch trolley came rattling along, and Phoenix bought a packet of Liquorice Wands, Cauldron Cakes, and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to share with George as Fred and Lee bought some Pumpkin Pasties to share.

She and George soon began their usual sharing of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. They both had to pick a bean and then eat it, and then they both had to say what flavour they had, it sounded boring but once George had a bogey-flavoured one once so it was hardly boring.

"I got marshmallow flavour," said Phoenix happily.

"I got dirty sock flavour," said George disguisedly.

"You have the worst luck at this," Phoenix laughed as she and George took another bean each, "GO!" At the same time, they both put the beans into their mouths and chewed.

"I got bacon flavour," said George brightly.

"I got vomit flavour," Phoenix said, wrenching as she chewed.

"You got'a sallow it!" Said Lee and Phoenix wrenched again before swallowing the disgusting sweet.

They continued eating until the box was empty. Overall, and as usual, Phoenix had the nicest flavours, from cherry flavour to coconut flavour, but unfortunately George had dog food flavour to rotten egg flavour and he left to go to the bathroom to wash his teeth thoroughly as Lee kept calling him 'dog breath'.

"So my entire family has been dropping hints that something is going on at Hogwarts," said Fred.

"Really?" Lee asked, "What did they say?"

"They said a lot of thing really," said Phoenix, putting her feet up on Fred's lap, who didn't object, but instead grabbed her shoe and pulled it off her feet. "That whatever is going on is going to be really interesting and they have changed the rules to whatever it is."

"Maybe it's a Quidditch tournament with other schools or something," said Lee.

"That's what George said," said Phoenix as she began to wrestle with Fred over her shoe.

"And then Nix here said that whatever it is," said Fred, "doesn't get in the way of our lessons."

Lee snorted with laughter as George walked back into the compartment, looking slightly alarmed at the wrestling match that was taking place between Phoenix and Fred.

"Give it me back!" Phoenix yelled, grabbing hold of one of Fred's arms as he dangled her shoe over her head tauntingly.

"No!" Fred said gleefully, "you know Phoenix, these shoes look tiny. Did you buy these from the kids section?"

"What on earth?" said George, sitting back down in his feet as Fred had managed to grasp both of Phoenix's small wrists with one of his large hands and with the other and began hitting her shoe on top of her head.

"Fred!" She moaned, pulling back her arms from Fred with surprising force, catching Fred by complete surprise as she managed to yank the shoe from his grasp and hit him with it, hard on the top of his head. She stuck her tongue out childishly at him as she returned to her seat and Fred returned a cheery wave and a wink.

"Has your dog breath gone, dog breath?" Lee said and George kicked him in response.

"Yeah it has in fact."

"You know," said Fred thoughtfully, looking over at Phoenix who was tying back up the laces on her shoes, "for such a small girl, you have surprising strength. If you weren't so cute and innocent I would have found you positively terrifying."

She glanced up at Fred and gave him a small smile as she straightened herself up in her seat, "Never underestimate a girl Fred Weasley." She said.

George smiled. "Bless," he said, "Fred, I saw Angelina back there with Alicia and Katie."

Fred looked around at his brother, trying not to look interested. But everyone in the compartment knew about Fred's small crush on her.

"Yeah?" Fred said, casually, "how – er – is she?"

George smirked and shared a knowing look with Phoenix as the Hogwarts Express rattled on as thunder rumbled overhead. Phoenix sat up on her knees in her seat to stare out of the window, rain lashed down and lighting flashed across the sky.

"I'm going to get dressed and say hi to Angelina and the others," said Phoenix as she grabbed her bundle of school robes from her trunk. She pulled opened the compartment door and then turned round to look at Fred, "I'll tell her you said hey." Phoenix ducked just in time to miss the Fred's shoe that he had just aimed at her. She grabbed his shoe too for good measure.

"Phoenix!"

Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell all were smiling widely at Phoenix as she entered their compartment, dressed in her school robes and holding her clothes in her hands. Angelina and Alicia were Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team along with Phoenix. Angelina was a tall, dark skinned girl with brown eyes and long black hair, Alicia was also tall, with blonde hair that was plaited and green eyes. Katie was a year younger, but she was a reserve Chaser on the Quidditch Team and was a close friend to Angelina, Alicia and Phoenix. Katie was smaller than both Angelina and Alicia and had short brown hair and amber eyes. They too had dressed into their school robes.

"Hey," Phoenix greeted, "George said that he saw you guys."

"Yeah, he said just come back from brushing his teeth," said Alicia who looked confused at this statement.

"He had a dog food flavoured Bertie Bott's," Phoenix said, "Lee kept calling him dog breath."

Angelina laughed and soon Alicia, Katie and Phoenix had joined in. Phoenix loved having Fred and George as her best friends, but she did need some time to spend with her fellow female friends to keep her sane and to leave Fred and George to their own devices, which was often when they were their most reckless.

Phoenix sat down beside Angelina, running her fingers through her hair that had turned candyfloss pink.

"You'll never guess what Katie just told us," said Angelina.

"Oh no please don't embarrass me!" Katie squealed, covering her face with her hands.

"Katie," Angelina said in a mock hurt voice, "we would _never_, _ever _in our wildest dreams think of embarrassing you," she shook her head dramatically before turning to Phoenix and smiling widely, "but she's been talking to Oliver over the summer and she fancies him."

"Aw! Katie!"

"Shut up Phoenix," Katie said, her cheeks very red. "I wrote to him over the summer saying congratulations on him joining Puddlemere United as a reserve player and we just… kept writing to each other."

"Lucky girl Katie," Alicia said, nudging her, "Oliver is gorgeous."

"Every Quidditch session we had, Alicia, Phoenix, and I would always check him out," said Angelina and Katie snorted.

"Yeah," Phoenix smirked, "he's a keeper."

The entire compartment burst into laughter at Phoenix's remark. Katie blushed once again and buried her face into her hands.

"Fred said hi by the way Angelina," Phoenix said grinning as she handed Angelina Fred's shoe. Unbeknown to Fred, Angelina had a crush on him and unbeknown to her, Fred fancied her back. Being both of their best friends, Phoenix kept this a secret.

"What on earth?" Angelina said, bemused.

"It's Fred's shoe," Phoenix replied innocently, "it's a symbol of your love togeth–" Before she could finish her sentence however, Angelina had whacked her arm, hard, with Fred's shoe.

"Just tell him that I said hi back," Angelina said, trying her very best not to laugh so that the corners of her mouth twitched one or two times as she placed down the shoe.

Phoenix laughed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Honestly, I'm not an owl," she said, "you go and say hi to him and give his shoe back."

"Yeah Angelina," Katie encouraged.

"Go to Fred and say hi," Alicia jeered, poking Angelina's side.

"And then snog his face off." Phoenix said simply and both Alicia and Katie burst into laughter.

"Whose face is being snogged off?"

The girls began to laugh even harder as Fred, George and Lee appeared in the door to the compartment, all dressed in their school robes.

"Yeah Angelina," said Phoenix, nudging her, "whose being snogged?"

Angelina shot daggers at Phoenix. "Nobody," she said, "Phoenix was just being her usual silly self and saying that er–"

"That Katie should send an owl to Oliver and they can meet up in Hogsmeade so she can snog his face off," said Phoenix, very quickly, covering for Angelina, who sent her a look of gratitude.

"Hey!" Katie said, blushing.

"Oh come off it Katie," said Phoenix, "we all know you and Oliver love each other." Phoenix sang happily.

"Really?" said Fred, suddenly interested in this new piece of gossip.

Katie blushed, "Yes," she said quietly, "I told the girls that Oliver and I have kept in contact over and maybe I like talking to him."

Phoenix and Angelina both coughed madly, sounding much more like the words 'Oliver' and 'snogging' than actual coughs.

"There's my shoe!"

The train began to slow down and Phoenix returned to her compartment with Fred, who had his shoe returned to him by Angelina, George, and Lee to put her clothes into her trunk. She also let Silvano out of his cage so that he could stretch his wings and fly to the Owlery at Hogwarts.

The train doors opened and instantly a rumble of thunder could be heard. Phoenix left the train alongside Fred, George, and Lee. The rain was falling harder and harder, they had to bend their heads and narrow their eyes so they could leave the platform and follow the rest of the crowd to where hundreds of seemingly horseless carriages that stood in lines waiting for them outside Hogsmeade station. Phoenix, Fred, George, and Lee all climbed quickly into one of the carriages. The door shut immediately, and moments later the carriage began to move, splashing against the muddy path as they lead the way to Hogwarts Castle.


	9. Everything Is a Bit Mad

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.**

**AN: Thank you so much for Gurl5678, HanableKing28, Jessica's, weasleys-darling and all the guest reviews. Reviews mean so much to me and they really motivate me to write more so thank you and keep them up! If you want the next chapter please review and answer these questions to help me with the story:  
**

**1. More George/Phoenix scenes?  
2. (This is for further into the story) What should Phoenix's patronus be? I have chosen two patronus' that I think would be appropriate, mainly because of their meanings:  
Orca - focus and power.  
Polar Bear - fearlessness and power.  
3. What are your theories about what happened to Phoenix's mother? (I'm curious).**

****** Also, Gurl5678 asked what the name of my next Fred and George/OC fanfiction is and it is called 'List of Things I Have Never Done' and I will probably be posting it when I have a) written more chapters b) write more for Vulnerability so I don't have trouble with clashing the stories. But I have plenty of time to write my stories and hopefully I will get to Phoenix and the twins seventh year by mid-July! But please enjoy this chapter and keep up the lovely reviews?! **

* * *

"_And with the millions of stars,  
We'll never be alone."_

* * *

"It's so cold," Phoenix stuttered as she hurried up the steps to Hogwarts alongside Angelina, Alicia and Katie. Fred, George, and Lee were already up ahead, their legs were much longer than theirs and they had practically flew into the castle and out of the rain.

"I know," Angelia said as a flash of lighting lit up the sky.

They were now in front of the oak front doors, where Fred, George, and Lee were waiting for them to catch up.

"Alright slow pokes," greeted Fred.

"Alright lanky," Angelina retorted as they all entered the warmth and safety of the torch lit entrance hall and into the Great Hall. The hall was decorated as usual for the start-of-term feast. The four long House tables were overcrowded with students, golden plates and goblets on the tables and hundreds of flaming candles floated over them in midair.

Phoenix and the others walked past the Slytherin table, where some of the members the Slytherin Quidditch hissed and sneered as they passed and Fred and George made rude gestures at them. They walked past the Ravenclaw table and the Hufflepuff table and then finally sat down on the far side of the hall at the Gryffindor table. Phoenix had sat down between George and Angelina and she looked up at the enchanted ceiling, which reflected the night sky outside, dark clouds were rumbling with thunder above their heads and lighting flashed.

"I feel sorry for the first years," she said, frowning. "They're probably going to drown in the lake."

"You feel sorry for everybody Nix," Alicia said.

"I know." Phoenix replied.

"I can't see any new faces," said George, his eyes looking up and down the staff table. "Maybe they couldn't find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Or maybe Snape finally got the job," smirked Phoenix. Her friends looked at her in horror, as though this statement was the worst thing that could possibly happen, which is was. Professor Snape was everybody's least favourite teacher, apart from the students in his house, Slytherin. He was the potions master at Hogwarts but everyone knew that he wanted the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but Dumbledore never allowed him for reasons nobody knew.

"I was joking," Phoenix said, "Dumbledore would never allow it."

"I'm hungry," groaned Fred, looking longingly at the golden plates.

"You're always hungry Fred," said Angelina, staring at Fred incredulously.

Fred was about to answer, when the doors to the Great Hall opened and the entire hall fell silent. Professor McGonagall led a line of nervous looking first years to the very top of the Hall. The first years looked as though they didn't use boats to travel over the lake, but looked as though they had swam across it. They were soaked from head to toe. The first years filed nicely in front of the staff table and looked around, nervously, shaking from cold and nerves, as they stood in front of the entire school.

Professor McGonagall had placed a stool in front of the first years and, on top of it, was an old and battered looking wizard's hat. The entire hall stared at it in silence, before a tear that was near the brim of the hat opened wide like a mouth and suddenly hat broke into song:

_"A thousand years or more ago,  
__When I was newly sewn,  
__There lived four wizards of renown,  
__Whose names are still well known;_

_Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,  
__Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,  
__Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,  
__Shrewd Slytherin, from fen._

_They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,  
__They hatched a daring plan  
__To educate young sorcerers  
__Thus Hogwarts School began._

_Now each of these four founders  
__Formed their own house, for each  
__Did value different virtues  
__In the ones they had to teach._

_By Gryffindor, the bravest were  
__Prized far beyond the rest;  
__For Ravenclaw, the cleverest  
__Would always be the best;_

_For Hufflepuff, hard workers were  
__Most worthy of admission;  
__And power-hungry Slytherin  
__Loved those of great ambition._

_While still alive they did divide  
__Their favorites from the throng,  
__Yet how to pick the worthy ones  
__When they were dead and gone?_

_'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,  
__He whipped me off his head  
__The founders put some brains in me  
__So I could choose instead!_

_Now slip me snug about your ears,  
__I've never yet been wrong,  
__I'll have to look inside your mind  
__And tell where you belong!"_

"When I call out your name, you will come forth, put on the hat and sit on the stool," Professor McGonagall called to the first years, unrolling a scroll of parchment. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table." She paused before reading out the first name. "Ackerley, Stewart!"

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat bellowed as the Ravenclaw table applauded him.

"Baddock, Malcolm!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table cheered as Malcolm Baddock sat down. Fred and George hissed at him.

"Branstone, Eleanor!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Cauldwell, Owen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Creevey, Dennis!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat announced.

Phoenix cheered along with the Gryffindor table as Dennis Creevey became the first Gryffindor to be sorted.

The sorting continued, as one by one, timid and terrified looking first years sat down on the stool and were sorted in their houses. But finally Kevin Whitby was sorted into Hufflepuff and so the Sorting ended.

"Oh finally," Fred breathed hungrily.

"You should like Ron," snorted Phoenix as Professor McGonagall picked the hat and the stool and took them from the Hall.

Professor Dumbledore stood up, looking around at the students through his half-moon spectacles, his arms wide, smiling. "I have only two words to say to you," he began, his voice echoing around the Hall magnificently. "Tuck in."

"Hear, hear!" Phoenix heard Harry and Ron jeer, for food had appeared on the table.

Fred, George, and Lee had food piled onto their plates within seconds. Angelina and Phoenix watched, in utter astonishment as George somehow managed to stuff nearly a whole chicken pie into his mouth.

"Honestly," Phoenix breathed as she put mash potato and roast beef onto her plate, much more graciously than Fred, George, and Lee had. "It's like you've never been fed."

"I ha'ent had an'hing sin'e lunch–," George said through a mouthful of carrots.

"Please George," said Angelina in a tone that reminded Phoenix strongly of Mrs. Weasley. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

George swallowed his food heavily, "Sorry mum," he said thickly.

"I really wonder who the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers," said Alicia, "it's not like they can just drop the subject completely."

"Maybe Dumbledore will teach it!" Fred said brightly.

"Imagine how awesome that would be," said George, wild eyed.

"He would be better than Gilderoy Lockhart," said Lee humorously.

"Please don't remind me of him," said Phoenix, shaking her head, "I'm still not over his special Valentine's Day message, and my musical valentine from Roger Davies," she shuddered.

Fred and George giggled audibly into their plates.

"But Roger is like really good looking now," Katie observed.

"Yeah," agreed Phoenix, casting a look over to the Ravenclaw table, where Roger was talking animatedly to Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, she turned back to the others. "But he's a bit of a git."

"He is?" Alicia said.

"He's a real show-off," explained Phoenix. "Haven't you noticed? Especially on the pitch. The amount of times I have wanted to knock him off his broom."

"Next time we are on the pitch, I'll give you a galleon if you do," said George.

Phoenix laughed, leaning over to whisper in his ear, "Yeah, when you get your money back from Ludo."

George nodded, smiling.

Desserts appeared shortly after the last of the dinners had been demolished. Phoenix picked up some rich pudding and began shovelling it down her throat.

"Honestly Nix," said George, in an incredibly good impression of Phoenix's voice, "It's like you're _never_ fed."

"Go away you dork," Phoenix giggled, shoving his arm and causing him to drop his strawberries.

George scoffed and threw one of the strawberries at Phoenix.

"Please don't start another food fight," said Lee.

"He started it!" Phoenix said at the very same time that George said: "She started it."

"Honestly," snorted Alicia, sharing a significant look with Angelina, "you two act like children."

"Well we are," said George in a matter of fact tone. "Legally anyway."

When finally, the last of pudding had too been eaten, the leftovers on the plates faded, leaving the plates as clean as they were when they entered the Hall, Dumbledore got to his feet once again. The chatter immediately ceased, only the crashes of thunder and pouring rain could be heard over the loud silence of the students.

"So!" said Dumbledore, clapping his hands together, brightly, smiling around the Hall. "Now that we are all fed and watered. I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." Phoenix eye's flickered from Fred and then George, and fought back a smile. "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"No!" Phoenix, Fred, George, Alicia, Katie, and even Lee (who was commentated all of their matches) all gasped and Harry looked round at them, his expression mirroring theirs.

Dumbledore continued, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

But at that precise moment, there was an extremely loud rumble of thunder and a flash of lighting as the Great Hall's doors banged open.

Phoenix's head whipped around, as did everyone else's in the hall, to see a man standing in the doorway. The man was leaning on a long staff and a black traveling cloak, which he lowered and began to limp towards the staff table. Clunk, clunk, clunk, echoed throughout the Hall as the man took a table. Phoenix narrowed her eyes as he reached the teacher's table, turning to Dumbledore. As another flash of lighting illuminated his face and she gasped. It was Mad-Eye Moody. She may never have met Moody, but she her step-brother telling her about Moody's eye. As one was small and dark, the other however, was inhumanely large, glaring and a piercing blue. The large one moved around madly, not blinking, it rolled madly, moving to the back of his head, so all they could see were the whites of his eyes. Phoenix also noticed that a chunk of Moody's nose was missing. His appearance was slightly terrifying, but she had to admit, almost cool.

"It's Mad-Eye Moody," she whispered to George, still watching Moody as he reached Dumbledore, who inclined Moody to an empty seat on the top table.

"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher" said Dumbledore into the stunned silence. "Professor Moody."

There was a scattered applause, not as energetic as usual and it ceased almost immediately.

Phoenix watched as Moody took out a hip flask from his traveling cloak, and took a gulp from it.

"What on earth is he drinking?" Angelina whispered.

"Probably something he has checked for poisons, he only ever drinks from his hip flask," Phoenix whispered back, "he's really paranoid that there are dark wizards everywhere. Will told me."

"As I was saying," Dumbledore cleared his throat and the students returned their attention back to the headmaster, "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" bellowed Fred, his eyes widening and looking as though his birthday had come early.

Nearly everybody in the Hall laughing, Dumbledore chuckled and Fred smirked triumphantly.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, "although now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar–,"

Professor McGonagall coughed loudly, giving Dumbledore a stern look.

"Er - but maybe this is not the time… no…" said Dumbledore, clearing his throat, "the Triwizard Tournament…well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely." Phoenix smiled at Dumbledore's words as she adverted her attention up to the enchanted sky, still listening however, "The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities -until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" Alicia whispered, looking horror-struck. Phoenix, Fred, George, Angelina, and Lee however were all listening intently.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament, none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time; no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger."

"Well that's enlightening," Phoenix heard Katie whisper to Alicia.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Fred whispered and Phoenix nodded in agreement. Being a Hogwarts champion would be a dream. Not just the prize money, but bringing not only glory to Hogwarts and her house, but her Muggle born status. Her eyes were suddenly ablaze with excitement, glowing their brightest blue, as she stared back at Dumbledore.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledore continued, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This–"

But Dumbledore couldn't finish his sentence as there was uproar from the students in the Great Hall. Fred and George began to boo as Dumbledore began to speak again.

"–is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." Phoenix noticed that Dumbledore's bright blue looked briefly over at Fred and George and the corners of Phoenix's mouth twitched. "I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!"

"They can't do that!" George said immediately as they all joined the crowd that were moving towards the door. He glared at Dumbledore and Phoenix shook her head at his childish behaviour. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"Well right now, you are acting like a two year old who just got told that they can't have a cookie." Phoenix said smartly and George nudged her into Ron, almost knocking him over.

"Don't you want to try and enter then Pixy?" said George, grabbing her arm so to help her regain balance.

She shrugged her shoulders, "It would be cool," she said in a small voice, "but I would like to have a quiet year." George grinned down at her.

"They're not stopping me entering," said Fred in an obnoxious voice, he too glaring at the top table.

"The champions will get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally," said George. "And a thousand Galleons prize money!" He added in a faraway sort of voice.

"Imagine it though," Ron said dreamily, "having a thousand Galleons."

"Come on you lot," said Hermione, who shared a look with Phoenix and they both rolled their eyes as Hermione grabbed Harry and Ron's arms and pulled him towards the doors to the Great Hall, and Phoenix grabbed Fred and George's arms and pull them through the doors. "We'll be the only ones left here if you don't move."

"Who's this impartial judge who's going to decide who the champions are?" said Harry as they climbed the marble staircase.

"Dunno," Fred shrugged, "but it's them we'll have to fool. I reckon a couple of drops of Aging Potion might do it, George…"

"Don't you even think about it Fred," Phoenix said sternly, "Dumbledore knows that you are not of age and there is no way that you can fool Dumbledore."

"Yeah," Fred said, rolling his eyes at her, "but Dumbledore isn't the one who decides who the champion is, is he? It sounds to me like once this judge knows who wants to enter; he'll choose the best from each school and never mind how old they are. Dumbledore's trying to stop us giving our names."

"People have died, though!" said Phoenix looking exasperated. "I would like it for you two to get through the year in one piece."

"Yeah," said Fred, waving his hand in the air as they walked through a door that was concealed behind a tapestry and began to climb another, much narrower staircase, "but that was years ago, wasn't it? Anyway, where's the fun without a bit of risk? Hey, Ron, what if we find out how to get 'round Dumbledore? Fancy entering?"

"Don't get your brother into this," said Phoenix, shaking her head.

Fred and George clearly were not listening to her, so she huffed and shook her head disapprovingly.

They reached the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, which was hidden behind the portrait of a fat lady dressed in a silky pink dress.

"Password?" she said as they all stood in front of her.

"Balderdash," said George, Phoenix looked at George, about to ask how he knew this, but George answered before she could speak. "A prefect downstairs told me."

The portrait of the fat lady swung open to reveal a hole in the wall, which they all climbed through.

The familiar warm, merrily crackling fire danced in large fireplace that dominated one wall. The common room was full of comfy armchairs, tables, and a bulletin board. A large window overlooked the Hogwarts grounds showed that the rain was still lashing down and lighting flashed every now and then.

Angelina, Lee, and Alicia were all sat down in front of the fire, so Phoenix, Fred, and George bid goodnight to the others and went over to the fire.

"So how are you two going to enter?" Lee asked immediately as Fred and George sat down on the comfy armchairs and Phoenix sat herself down on the floor, in front of the fire.

"Bit of Aging Potion might do it," said Fred. "If Phoenix is up for making some for–,"

"Nope," said Phoenix stubbornly. "Not going to happen."

"Angelina reckons she can enter," said Alicia, "Seems as though her birthday is in October, she'll be able to enter."

"You would be a good champion," said Phoenix.

"Thank you Nix, Lee seems to disagree," said Angelina, shooting Lee a glare, "but about my birthday…"

"What about it?" said Fred.

"Well," began Angelina, the corners of her mouth twitching, "when I was packing, I managed to take a few bottles of my mum's Firewhisky and sneak them into my trunk."

"How many?" said Lee.

"When she means a few," said Alicia, "she means about six, her Dad put a charm on her case so she could fit a lot of her books in there. Did you manage to get some from Will then Nix?"

Phoenix nodded, "Yeah," she said, "Will said that he won't tell my Dad or Cecilia and he's pretty chilled about everything anyway. He got me three bottles of Blishen's Firewhisky, they're in my trunk." Over the summer she, Angelina, and Alicia had been writing to each other, planning to get as much Firewhiskey as they could for all of the coming of age parties that they were going to have.

"Phoenix!" Gasped Fred, "I didn't realise you were such a rebel!"

Phoenix shook her head, "There is a lot you don't know about me Fred."

"Like what?" he said.

"That I can get Firewhisky much more quickly than you could."

"I managed to get some Butterbeer," said Alicia, "that was the only thing my mum would get me."

"And why didn't you lot tell us about this?" George asked, looking around at the girls incredulously.

Phoenix shared a look with Angelina and Alicia, before looking back at George, smiling, "It was supposed to be a surprise," she said, "but if you don't want any, that's fine you're uninvited."

"No I'm not," George said, kicking Phoenix playfully.

"Don't kick me!"

"Oi! You two, stop flirting!" Fred said.

"Flirting?" said Phoenix, looking utterly confused, "he just kicked me. That's not flirting, that's abuse."


End file.
